Hermione Granger Sneezed
by MissChocklitMilk
Summary: Hermione Granger sneezes into a potion. Draco Malfoy accidentally drinks the potion. Things happen. I rated this T because of bad words and kissy scenes heh.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione Granger sneezed.

She walked across the hallway towards the Fat Lady, her head throbbing. She uttered the password and sniffed back the snot that went flying out of her nose after she sneezed. The Fat Lady looked down at her with a disapproving look, but swung open anyway. Hermione ignored her. It _was_ disgusting, she had to agree, but it wasn't _her_ fault she got stuck outside the greenhouse during Herbology with the Slytherins. It was _Malfoy's_ fault.

She went into the Common Room. She needed bed rest, she felt terrible. It was late, so there weren't many people there, only about less than ten Gryffindors. Probably cramming. She made her way up the staircase to the girls' dormitories. _That'll never happen to me! _She thought, her head held high. She opened the door to her dorm room. _Honestly, if they just do it on time they wouldn't be troubled at all anymore, or they could even do them as early as possible and—_

And that's when she saw the cauldron.

"What are you _doing_?" She asked, annoyed. She didn't have time for this; she needed to sleep so her bloody headache would go away.

She looked expectantly at the girls sitting around the cauldron: her roommates Parvati Patil, Fay Dunbar, Lavender Brown, and a first year girl, who was not her roommate, and whose name she didn't know, waiting for an answer. Her fourth roommate was already asleep, thank goodness.

Parvati's face lit up. "Hermione, perfect! You can help us!" She looked at the first year girl. "That's Hermione, our other roommate. She's really good at brewing potions." Parvati looked back at Hermione and pointed to the girl, "Julie went to us and asked for help. You see, she snuck out a potions book from the restricted section of the library that teaches you how to brew a really powerful—"

"Stop _right_ there." After hearing the words _snuck out_ and _restricted section_, Hermione knew it all just meant trouble. "I've got a really bad headache, so be grateful that I'm just going to go to sleep instead of telling on all of you. Just keep me out of this."

The girls' faces fell.

Hermione walked to her bed, which the cauldron was at the end of. She looked at the liquid bubbling inside: thick, green, and disgusting-looking. "That won't start smelling bad and fill the room with vomit-worthy fumes, will it?" She asked, apprehensive. Maybe she should have busted them.

She sneezed suddenly. "Ugh, sorry." Nobody noticed that some of her spit went in the cauldron.

"Oh, no way," the first year girl—Julie—said perkily. "According to the book," she looked at the text, and so did Lavender, Parvati, and Fay, "it isn't supposed to smell."

"Oh, okay," Hermione almost-collapsed on the bed. Merlin, she was tired. She started dozing off, not even bothering to change into her nightgown.

"What are the next instructions?" Fay asked Julie, excited. Who knew potions was this fun? She had to pay attention in class more.

Julie frowned and looked at the bottom of the page. "The next step is ripped off."

"Let's look at the step after that," suggested Lavender. "It might say something about the step before."

Julie turned the page. "After it turns crimson," she read out loud, "stir it clockwise twice, and counterclockwise once."

"Look, the potion's crimson now!" Fay exclaimed with glee.

"It probably just said wait for how many minutes or something," Parvati shrugged.

"Great!" Julie said. "Let's continue!"

"This is going to be the best love potion ever!" Lavender gushed.

xxx

Earlier that day, Parvati Patil the Matchmaker was on the prowl again, with her trusty sidekick Lavender Brown ("I'm not her sidekick!"). It was right after the day's classes ended that they saw a dark-haired first year girl bump into a first year boy in an empty corridor. They hid behind a statue of an ugly witch that was huge enough to cover both her and Lavender.

The boy helps the girl, they exchange a few words, and the boy went on his way. The girl remained there, standing in a daze, smiling widely, her face as red as a tomato.

Parvati and Lavender exchanged excited looks. _Ah, young love. Looks like another job for…_

"I'm Parvati Patil," said Parvati, jumping from her hiding place. "And I'm Lavender Brown," said Lavender, doing the same.

The first year girl jumped too, but it was out of surprise. "W-where did you come from?" She squeaked.

"Wait, we're not done with the intro yet!" Parvati moaned.

"This happens every time, Parvati," Lavender told her. "Maybe we should just shorten it a bit more."

"Again?" Parvati complained. "We already took away the sparkles charm we practiced for days!" She looked at the girl. "Sorry, sorry," Parvati apologized. She cleared her throat. "We just happened to see…"

xxx

And so, the next day.

Saturday morning, breakfast time at the Great Hall.

"Go ahead, Julie!" Fay urged. Though her (and Julie's and Lavender's and Parvati's) face showed obvious lack of sleep, they were really excited. They _knew_ the love potion would work, they did everything perfectly!

But there was something nagging at the back of Parvati's head…

_What was the ripped out part of the page?_

Julie, the pretty, dark-haired, gray-eyed, first-year girl who fancied a first year Slytherin boy who showed no interest at all in girls ("Tragic," said Parvati), bravely walked to the Slytherin table with a glass of pumpkin juice shaking in her hands. Pumpkin juice…mixed with that potion they made last night.

"H-hi," Julie smiled nervously. Parvati, Fay, and Lavender watched in anticipation from afar. Julie made conversation, casually offered some pumpkin juice, and went away.

"No! Back! Go back!" The three spectators hissed, making wild hand movements. "Make sure he drinks it!"

Julie shook her head furiously. "Not going back there!" She mouthed, blushing. "Slytherins!" She sprinted back to the Gryffindor table. She sat down next to the three girls, exhilarated. They high-fived, and proceeded to eat breakfast.

Hermione was late for breakfast. Her head still hurt, but she didn't want to go to Madam Pomfrey, if any Slytherin sees her, _Malfoy'll know for sure_, and he'll just make fun of her because he was the reason she could have ended up there in the first place. It was a petty thing, but Hermione Granger wasn't a weak girl, and she always wants to prove that.

Speaking of Malfoy, he was late too. Late for breakfast, late for Slytherin Quidditch practice. He barely had enough time to snatch a glass of pumpkin juice from a Slytherin first year boy before heading over to the Quidditch field.


	2. Chapter 2

"Where've you _been_?" Ginny asked as Hermione sat down next to her. "And you look terrible."

Hermione shrugged. "Headache. Clogged sinuses. Dizziness. Ughh." She wasn't even okay enough to form complete sentences.

"Go to Madam Pomfrey!" Ginny said. She was about to add "duh! Woman's a miracle worker", but decided against it. Hermione was probably going to snap at her and say something like, "Don't you think I would have thought of that already?" And give a perfectly valid reason as to why she did not or cannot.

But surprisingly, all Hermione said was, "Nah."

Ginny raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Hermione started eating breakfast and pretended to listen to Ginny's observations, remarks, and comments about thing she couldn't care less about, like always. "Oh, look at that! Malfoy took a glass from a kid, isn't that nice of him? Woah, look at Pansy's hair today, it's starting to look like Snape's. I bet she thinks it's so healthy and shiny now. Hey, isn't that Ravenclaw girl the one… "

All Hermione's ears registered was _blah, blah, blah_.

xxx

Meanwhile, at the Quidditch field…

Draco Malfoy was feeling…_odd_. He was on his broom, high up in the air, and usually he felt some kind of thrill of flying so high at this point, but all he felt was…something odd. He never felt anything quite like it before, so he couldn't understand what was happening.

Had he eaten anything lately that would cause this weird feeling? Perhaps he had and that was why he was feeling this way? He thought for a while. Not any different from what everyone at Hogwarts ate everyday in the Great Hall. Drank anything? Well, the pumpkin juice from that first year. _But I'm pretty sure the house elves don't put anything in that…_And the first year was about to drink it, so obviously nothing was put in the stuff…But the feeling was somewhere on his chest, not his stomach…

Suddenly, nothing mattered to him anymore. His thoughts just went blank, and then this singular piece of fact appeared in his head.

_You love Hermione Granger._

Malfoy raised his eyebrows. What was he thinking again? What? Granger?

And then everything cleared up again. He loved Hermione Granger. _Oh_, Malfoy smiled. _That's right, of course. I do, I do love Hermione Granger._

_But, if I love Granger…wait, _what_? What the hell? Did I just think I loved…wait, no, I didn't just think it, I know it! Of course it's true! I better find her now. It's a bit lonely without her around._

Malfoy flew back to the ground wearing a dreamy smile that Luna Lovegood would have approved of.

"Oi, Malfoy! What're you doing?" His fellow Slytherins asked from above.

"I just remembered, I have to go do something!" Malfoy called. "Just continue without me!" He bolted for the castle with one _thing_, or rather, _person_, in mind.

_Where are you, Granger?_

xxx

Speaking of Granger, she was just finishing up breakfast. She stood up. "I'm just going to go back to the common room now," she yawned. Even yawning made her head ache even more. It was a miracle how she managed to consume her breakfast without passing out or throwing up on anyone.

She staggered and floundered out of the Great Hall like a drunk person. Maybe she _should_ go to Madam Pomfrey. She was feeling worse by the minute. Hermione had assumed that her fever would be gone by now, or at least much better but not completely cured. She was just out in the pouring rain outside the greenhouse for a while…it was just a cold, right?

"Granger!" She heard a familiar voice call her name. The voice was familiar, but the tone addressing her was not.

She slowly turned around. If she wasn't so sick and disoriented, she would have noticed that Malfoy was, for the very first time, smiling. To her. To Hermione Granger.

"Ugh," Hermione moaned. "Not _you_. You were the one who got me stuck in the rain. I bet you knew I didn't want to miss the class and would stick around even if it was raining, right?"

"Granger, I love you!" Malfoy declared gleefully.

Even the dizzy version of Hermione Granger could realize that he just said something wrong. "_What?_" Maybe she was just hallucinating. Yes, obviously.

"What do you mean, 'what'?" asked Malfoy, putting his arm around her. "Hey, you're warm," he noticed. "Are you sick?" He asked, concerned, placing his other hand on her forehead.

"_You_ are sick, Draco Malfoy." She retorted. "If you just said what I heard you just said." And then her vision got blurry. She started seeing spots, and then passed out.

"Granger!"


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione opened her eyes. She was lying on a bed. _It was a dream!_ she thought, relieved. _Thank goodness. Just an odd, disturbing, nightmarish dream!_

...WAIT.

Her eyes focused on the green silk hangings of the four-poster bed. Then she noticed the sheets that were embroidered with silver thread. Then she noticed Draco Malfoy standing beside her bed, looking down at her with a concerned expression.

She sat up quickly and rubbed her eyes. More hallucinations? What? Was it even possible for Malfoy to wear that kind of expression? Where was she? Why does her head still ache like a million jackhammers were trying to drill open her skull?

"You're awake!" He said, delighted.

"Alright," Hermione took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. "I have no idea where the hell I am and why the hell you're here with me and how the hell I got here, so you better start explaining because Ron recently just showed me a book with an interesting hex and he asked me to teach him but of course I declined but I read the procedure and I know I can do it the first time I try if I have someone to do it to." she babbled threateningly.

A big shadow was passing the windows and the room went pitch black. Hermione squealed and instinctively hid under the sheets. "What _is_ that?" She whispered.

"Well, that was the giant squid..."

The room wasn't dark anymore and Hermione slowly creeped out of the blankets.

As if noticing her for the first time, Malfoy's eyes widened. "Granger?" He yelled. "_What are you doing on my bed? In my dormitory?_"

"_What?_ It's _you_ who knows! I just woke up!" She yelled back, outraged. "As if I _want_ to be here! It's _you_ who's got some explaining to do! Why am I here?"

"_How should I know?_"

"_How should I know how you should know? Like I said, I JUST WOKE UP, with no memory whatsoever letting me know how I got here!_"

"_Then what makes you think I know?_"

Getting really annoyed, Hermione grabbed his collar and pulled him closer with a lot of force. They were nose to nose. "Just _shut up_ and _tell me_ what you were doing before you were standing here."

"_Let go of me, you filthy mudblood-_"

"_DO YOU WANT ME TO TURN YOU INTO A FERRET? _Shut the hell up, and answer-"

Malfoy's expression suddenly softened and he kissed her.

xxx

"Hey, where's Hermione?" Parvati asked. She was in back in her dorm with her roommates, they had already finished breakfast. "I thought she went back here."

Lavender shrugged. "Maybe in the library, doing homework..."

Julie burst in the room, bouncing up and down in excitement, with a huge grin on her face. "He spoke to me! After breakfast! When I was leaving the Gryffindor table!" She squealed.

Fay's face lit up. "The potion worked, then? What did he tell you?"

"What did the potion say again? What was supposed to happen?" Lavender asked. In the book, there were follow-up notes about how not to make the potion too strong, like substitute a potion ingredient with something weaker, and stir it counter-clockwise after every three clockwise stirs...of course they had to do those, Julie was still young. And innocent. "After substituting all those ingredients and stirring the opposite ways and things?"

"Well," Julie said, sitting down on Hermione's empty bed, trying to remember. "He's supposed to feel 'attracted' to me first, and I would be always on his mind. All throughout the week, because the potion will only work for a week because I only put a tiny bit in the pumpkin juice...because, you know, what if we did something wrong while making it, and I was afraid he'd get poisoned or something...anyway, all throughout the week he can still, sort of, well, think for himself a bit because we added some extra mistletoe berries for that, but his, um, feelings and actions would be controlled by the potion..."

"Oh, then he'll start thinking he loves you," Parvati said.

"And at the end of the week when it wears off, even if his actions and feelings aren't being controlled by the potion anymore, it's now in his mind, how he loves you?" Fay asks.

"Not really 'love', just...'like', because we added way more valerian sprigs than we should have, and it supposed to, how can I put this, kind of, 'diluted' the love. And then I can work on it from there after the week," Julie added brightly.

"Valerian sprigs?" Lavender's eyes widened. She got off her bed and went to Hermione's bed, where underneath it they stuffed all the extra potions ingredients they nicked. She pulled out a huge heap of the sprigs. "I was supposed to put _all_ of these in?"

"Well, yeah..." Julie was confused. "Maybe I read that part of the notes wrong then, maybe it was something else that lessened the attraction factor." She shrugged. "Because if it _was_ the valerian sprigs, he should have kissed me already or have done something more extreme."

"So we _did_ do it right, then," Fay smiled.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione's hand let go of Malfoy's collar in surprise. He slipped his hand under her bushy brown hair and pulled her closer to him. Hermione's heart almost stopped. Her arms wrapped around his neck without her conscious control as he sat down next to her on the bed.

They pulled away from their passionate kiss, Hermione because she was out of air. She looked away from Malfoy. "What—" Gasp. "The—" Gasp. "_Hell—_" Gasp. "Was _that_?" She was blushing, she was sure of it. Red-faced, breathless and embarrassed. Maybe she could pass it off as the fever? she thought frantically. Draco Malfoy _kissed_ her, and she didn't even _struggle_. She _responded_.

She was baffled at her actions, and obviously Malfoy's too. She turned back to him and slapped him good and hard. It was made obvious by the loud sound the slap made that it hurt. A lot.

"_What was that for?_" Malfoy asked, surprised and annoyed, putting his hand on the place where he got slapped. There was already a red imprint of Hermione's hand on his pale face.

"What was that _for_?" Hermione repeated, outraged. "Do you have amnesia and some sort of crazy bipolar disorder or are you on drugs?"

A thought struck Malfoy. Everything made perfect sense. Every girl in Hogwarts wants him, and obviously the mudblood too. She was clever, he had to admit, and had come up with an ingenious plan to somehow—

"Don't just zone out like that and completely ignore me, you –"

"You slipped me a love potion!" Malfoy accused, standing up.

Hermione was enraged. She couldn't _believe _what she was hearing. Malfoy, accusing_ her_ of something she would never _ever _do_, not on her life, _however crazy the circumstances might be. She stood up too. "_EXCUSE ME?_"

"Admit it, Granger, you've fallen for my charm and extremely good looks. Don't deny it, I know, I get it. But no matter how hopelessly infatuated you may be with me, I would never date an ugly mudbloo—"

_Slap._

_"That hurts_!Stop that, Granger, not the face. You've got to accept rejection and deal with it without violence,_"_ He rolled his eyes. "No wonder guys don't like you. Except for Potty and Weasel, but—"

"If you want me to stop it, stop giving me reasons not to! Listen to what the bloody hell you're saying, you heinous, scornful_…idiot_! As if _I_ would ever _less than loathe you_, you're disgusting!" She yelled. "And if you think I slipped you some _stupid love potion_, how do you think I did it? What's your proof? Don't jump to impossible conclusions!"

"Aha! So you were trying to poison that first year kid with your love potion, then!"

"_What? _What first year kid?"

"That kid whose pumpkin juice I took! You probably had it spiked with that shit—"

"_What the hell are you talking about?_"

"Really, Granger, I didn't expect you to be the cougar type. A fifth year who's got the hots for a first year? Really? And a prefect, too. And were you still that unappealing that you had to resort to a measure as desperate as—"

_Slap. _Hermione's hand was already stinging, but that was okay, because that meant that Malfoy was in much more pain. "Sure, go ahead and keep giving me reasons to slap the shit out of you, I'd be happy to inflict you more pain. I guarantee after a few more, you're face will be deformed."

"Alright, alright!" Malfoy covered his face from her slappy hands.

"We will talk in a civil manner." Hermione said, trying to contain all her anger. She counted one to ten slowly in her mind, breathing deeply. "Now, you will tell me what happened, and why you think they happened. Minus all the insults."

"Fine," he replied reluctantly, glaring at her. He prized his face more than his hatred for the girl, so he obliged. "So this morning I was late for Quidditch practice, so I skipped breakfast and went straight to practice after taking a glass of pumpkin juice from a first year Slytherin. I think that's what's causing me to act the way I did."

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Then I remember just, suddenly stopped thinking and you kept popping into my mind, and then for some reason I went back into the Great Hall and tried find you. Then you fainted, and I brought you here—"

"Why not the hospital wing?" Hermione demanded.

"I don't know!" Malfoy said, exasperated. "Wasn't it obvious that I was being controlled against my will? Not able to think clearly and all that? Jesus, I thought you were _smart_. Why else did I…uh, you know," he turned slightly pink for a quick while, remembering the kiss. "Anyway. That's all."

Hermione sighed. "What the hell?" She said quietly to herself. "I sure didn't make any love potions…but obviously by the way you're acting, you're under some sort of magic, but it's on and off. It's probably weak," she speculated.

"It's sure as hell not, Granger. You have no idea, there's this stupid little voice in my mind and it's hard to fight and shut out, it's incredibly annoying."

"Good for you then, because I have a killer headache as well. That makes us even now, after you locked me out of the greenhouse yesterday. I even got a terrible cold."

Malfoy smirked at the memory. It was genius, of course. He made Sprout cast a silencing charm outside after whining about the really loud rain 'ruining his concentration'. And the professor forgot that Granger went on a quick potty break...

"Wipe that off your face or you're getting a slap."

He wiped it off immediately. He sighed. "Now what do you propose we do?"

"We?" Hermione quirked her eyebrow. "It's not my problem."

Malfoy's heart rate increased rapidly. "What did you say?"

"Why would I help you?" Hermione deadpanned. "You're a prat."

"Oh," Malfoy fixed his cold, steely eyes on hers, trying to intimidate her. "I knew it, you _like_ being sexually harassed—"

Hermione slapped him again. "_Fine_, I'll help you. What's in it for me?"

"Well, for one, you'll stop getting sexually harassed."

"Not a pretty good argument, Malfoy," Hermione shook her head. "I could just slap you."

"And you think I wouldn't hurt a girl?" He smirked.

"I don't, but I expect the magic controlling you won't let you hurt me," It was Hermione's turn to smirk. She wasn't completely sure of that statement, but she said it anyway.

"Alright, fine, _what do you want_?" He gave up out of desperation.

Hermione thought. She didn't know why she said all those things, she would be very willing to just help Malfoy just to get him out of her hair, but this was getting fun. Now, what can she make Malfoy do for her?

"You'll have to do something I'll tell you to. Just _one_ thing. But it could be _anything_," Hermione said. Yes, that was good. She'll think about what it would be soon, when the time comes. Meanwhile, it would be just plain old satisfying, having Draco Malfoy owing her. Oh, maybe she could make him donate twelve trillion galleons to S.P.E.W. or something! That's a good one. _Hmm, I'll decide on it later._

Malfoy weighed the consequences. "If I agree, will you also stop hitting me?"

"Only if necessary."

"What do you mean, _necessary_?"

"If you're under the influence of some magic forcing you to act different from the way you treat me. And if you're being a git." It didn't make any sense to Hermione, because the he acted like a git to her when he's not in Granger Love mode. But that only meant that Hermione won't stop slapping him.

"Deal," Malfoy agreed finally. _Anything to get rid of these dirty thoughts about Granger. _He shuddered mentally.


	5. Chapter 5

"Well, first things first, we need to go to the library to read up on love potions and enchantments and such." Hermione decided.

_Of course_, Malfoy rolled his eyes. _The library. She practically _lives_ there._

Hermione started walking out of the dorm when her knees buckled and she collapsed into Malfoy's arms. She was still weak, and apparently only capable of two things motion-wise: standing and slapping Malfoy.

Her eyesight blurred, and her breathing quickened. _Stupid fever._

"Granger?" Malfoy asked, worried.

_Worried? _Malfoy thought. _No way in hell, I'm not worried for Granger._

_In denial, in denial, in denial!_ The annoying little voice in his head taunted.

_Shut up, you._

_You were totally worried! And I wasn't even controlling your thoughts or anything! HAAAA._

_Well, I was worried that she might not get to help me anymore, that's it._

_Excuses, excuses, excuses!_

Malfoy ignored the voice that sounded oddly like a girly version of himself and looked down at Granger. "Don't make it a habit falling into my arms. If I were myself I would have let you drop."

_Lies, Draco Malfoy, and you know it._

_Shut up._

He gently laid her down on the bed.

Hermione opened her eyes, but only managed a squint. "It's not like I'm doing it on purpose, don't flatter yourself."

"What now?" He asked, as if she hadn't spoken.

"Get me to the Hospital Wing this time; don't leave me here on the bed again," she commanded.

Malfoy raised one eyebrow.

Hermione sighed. "_Please?_"

"That always helps," he said, getting Hermione off the bed. "Don't want you thinking I'm going to be your little house elf slave, Granger."

Hermione bit back a retort and let herself be carried. He had one arm supporting her back and the other under the back of her knees, lifting her with ease. She wanted to mention that he could have just conjured up a stretcher of some sort and levitated it to the Hospital Wing, but decided against it, for some reason she couldn't fathom. Maybe she was just tired arguing.

She rested her head against his chest, which she thought was excusable because…well, she was sick, wasn't she? She listened to his steady heartbeat, which was strangely comforting.

Malfoy looked down at Hermione. Her eyes were closed, her breathing slow. She looked very serene and comfortable. Malfoy was startled, she looked quite pretty, and very pleasant to look at. He never realized it before, and now he had the chance to look at her close-up. Without all the attitude and muggleborn-ness, he would have—

_Beautiful, right?_

_Yeah, I never—_

"Sometime today, please," Hermione interrupted his thoughts, impatience in her voice. Her eyes were still closed as she spoke. "So we can go straight to the library after Madam Pomfrey fixes me up."

Malfoy reluctantly tore his eyes away from her and started walking. He was carrying her out of the dorms and to the Slytherin common room when Hermione realized something. "What if someone sees? Is someone there?"

"No one's here, Granger. They're all outside, by the looks of the weather this morning." It snowed lightly last night after the rain that drenched Hermione. Now the grounds were covered with white and looked like a Winter Wonderland.

"You're really hot, you know?" He commented on her temperature. Then he realized what he just said, and turned a bit red, thankful that she wasn't looking. "I mean, your, you know, temperature, not…er, the other one."

Hermione chose not to speak, and resisted the urge to smile.

x

**Thank you so much for reading! Please review/fave/alert/enjoy!**


	6. Chapter 6

"What happened here, Mr. Malfoy?" Madam Pomfrey asked as he reached the Hospital Wing.

"Well, she almost fainted a while ago, and she's got a cold and a fever," Malfoy explained. Thankfully no one was in the Hospital Wing, except for Madam Pomfrey. "She was out in the rain yesterday."

Madam Pomfrey frowned. "Why was Miss Granger out of the castle? It was raining terribly hard yesterday before the snow."

Malfoy shrugged. Hermione made a mental note to say something to him about that later, shrugging while he knows full well why she was stuck outside.

"Well, get her on this bed now, if you please," Madam Pomfrey said. Malfoy let Hermione down on the bed. Madam Pomfrey worked busily, checking her temperature, trying to see what was wrong. "I thought I was going to have a free day since it's Hogsmeade weekend. I guess I was mistaken…Oh, dear," she shook her head a bit. "I'm afraid she's got Wizard's Fever."

"What's that?" _And Hogsmeade weekend! _How did he forget?

"I better get started on treatment. If you wish to wait, you can go ahead, but it takes a while, and then Miss Granger will need to rest." Madam Pomfrey closed the curtains around the perimeter of the area around the bed.

Malfoy sighed. Was he going to wait? Should he take a leaf out of Granger's book and go to the library to look up Wizard's Fever and love potions? He remembered hearing about Wizard's Fever before, but forgot what it was. He would ask Madam Pomfrey, but she seems mighty busy in there with Granger. He could hear clinks of glass vials, corks opening, the unstoppering of some jars. Interesting smells emanated from where they were: vanilla, grass, and then chocolate, a blend of tropical fruits, lemongrass, parchment…weird.

He went out of the Hospital Wing. What was he to do? His stomach grumbled and he realized it was already time for lunch. Maybe that explains why almost nobody was in the corridors. He made his way to the Great Hall and sat on his usual place in the Slytherin table: with Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle.

"Where've you been?" Blaise asked. "You suddenly left practice without saying anything."

"Dorm." Malfoy shrugged, barely listening.

"What were you doing there? I was watching you play Quidditch and you just went away!" Pansy pouted.

He didn't say anything and started filling up his plate with food. He was thinking of Granger. Would she be okay? Well, obviously. She's in the Hospital Wing being patched up now. Why was he worried? Wizard's Fever…something about that. It wasn't Granger he was worried about…

"Anyone know what Wizard's Fever is?" He asked suddenly.

Nott chuckled. "I heard some stupid Hufflepuff a few years ago got it. He was in the rain, and got sick. They said that some planets and moons were aligned that time or something, it all sounds like Trelawney shit. He was in the Hospital Wing for a few hours for intensive aromatherapy and whatever," he shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"I heard the idiot got some spit on his Hufflepuff girlfriend and she got Wizard's Fever too," Pansy added, and shrieked with laughter. The other Slytherins laughed too, except for Malfoy.

"What's wrong, Draco?" Pansy's pug-like face contorted with confusion and concern. She grabbed his arm and hugged it.

Sickened, Malfoy pulled away. "Nothing."

"Oh! Draco, you're taking me to Madam Puddifoot's later at Hogsmeade, right?" Pansy looked up at him hopefully, clinging back onto his arm. "All the boys are taking their girlfriends there!"

A vein pulsed in Malfoy's temple. She was getting more and more annoying by the day. "_Get off_, Parkinson."

Her lower lip quivered and she reluctantly let go. The conversation, where Malfoy took no active part in, proceeded to Hogsmeade and what they were going to do there.

xxx

Hermione woke up. "Malfoy?" She called quietly. It was the first name that came into her mind.

She sat up on the bed and was pleased to discover that her head didn't ache anymore. Her fever had gone, she was of normal temperature…she still sniffled a bit, but that was fine.

"Miss Granger?" Madam Pomfrey hurried over to her bed. "How are you feeling?" She gave Hermione some chocolate.

"Really good, thank you," Hermione smiled.

"Normally I wouldn't let you off until a good night's sleep…but you seem well enough to be off, don't you think so? You shouldn't miss Hogsmeade; you students rarely go there."

_Hogsmeade!_ Hermione's eyes widened, and she almost dropped her chocolate. She, as a prefect, was supposed to help the teachers get the students on the train before it leaves, and keep all the students organized and well-informed on what time they get back on the train and such. "Madam Pomfrey, what time is it?"

"About two, I think…"

Hermione jumped off the bed. "I-I've got to go! I'm a prefect, and I have to—"

"Just finish the chocolate—"

Hermione was out the door. She bolted to the portrait of the Fat Lady, said the password, and crawled through the hole to the Gryffindor Common room as fast as she could. She ran up the staircase to the girl's dormitories and went to her dorm room. Her roommates were there, admiring their new winter wear in mirrors, as it was finally cold enough to use them. Hermione hurriedly pulled on a black and white coat over her shirt as if her life depended on it.

"What's the rush, Hermione?" Parvati asked.

"The train's been postponed an hour, did you know?" Lavender added.

Hermione lied down on her bed with her coat half on, her heart beating like a rabbit that was being chased by a predator. "No one told me!" She moaned breathlessly.

"It was on the Notice board."

Hermione sighed. "So I ran like a maniac for nothing," she huffed, standing up when she finally caught her breath.

"That coat's really pretty, you know?" Parvati looked at Hermione's coat in admiration.

Hermione looked down. "Oh…thanks." Usually Parvati and Lavender criticized her clothes all the time, saying that it didn't suit her, she should try wearing something girly, stop wearing jeans, and all those things, driving Hermione crazy.

"What's your size?" Lavender suddenly said, eyes twinkling.

"Er…I don't know…" Hermione said, not sure where the conversation was going to go.

"I have a skirt that would be perfect with that!"

_Uh-oh._

xxx

No one can stop two almost-rabid, crazed girls determined to make Hermione look girly. In a span of fifteen minutes, they succeeded in throwing together an incredible outfit and forced Hermione into it. She agreed (although reluctantly) because she knew that once these girls had a goal (well, fashion and beauty-wise), that goal was going to be reached in any way possible.

Parvati and Lavender squealed in delight, bouncing up and down, clapping their hands after surveying Hermione with critical eyes. "You look amazing!" They assured.

Hermione looked at herself in the mirror, and was surprised. She _was_ quite a sight, even if the clothes weren't really what she wore normally. "This skirt is really, really short," She frowned. "And impractical during cold weather."

"Hermiioooneeee," Parvati whined. "You've got the stockings on, it's fine!"

Hermione stared at her outfit in the mirror. The girls had forced her to wear a red button-up blouse with ruffles along the tiny black buttons, under her coat. Her coat was black, with big white buttons, and the pockets were lined with white cloth, and so were the collar and trim. The skirt was white (_and short!_) with black buttons on it. She was wearing white stockings, and for footwear, black boots.

"It's not what I'd wear…"Hermione started, nervous. _To be honest, I HATE IT. It's not uncomfortable, but…it doesn't look like me. _She thought, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. The girls would murder her.

"Oh, come one, Hermione! Wear it out, just this once, for us?" Lavender pleaded. "You look really really great!"

"Please?" Parvati joined in.

After a few minutes more of begging and pleading, she gave in. "Oh, _alright!_"

xxx

"Third Years! Third Years, _these_ compartments please! The Professors want to separate everyone by year!" Hermione called out. "Third Years! Don't go into other years' compartments! _Here!_" She yelled, trying to make herself heard over all the excited Hogwarts students' chatter. They were on the train to Hogsmeade, which was leaving in a few minutes.

She looked at Ron, his fellow prefect, for help. "Ron, _help me out here!_"

Ron was looking at her outfit. "Er…"

Hermione blushed, "Well, don't stare!" She went to him and waved her hands at his face. "Earth to Ron Weasley! You're a prefect, go _do your job!_" She shook him by the shoulders. "_Ron!_"

Finally, he seemed to snap out of it. "What?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "The third years go into these compartments," she pointed and instructed. "You get them in, I'll check on the fifth years, Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein somehow got the fourth years in their proper places." She walked away.

The Slytherin prefects were, as expected, doing nothing and letting the Hufflepuff prefects do their work. "Malfoy! Parkinson!" Hermione scolded. "You're _prefects!_"

"And _you're_ an annoying mud—" Pansy looked up and stopped in her tracks. She was looking at Hermione with a very surprised expression.

Malfoy looked up to insult her too, but, like Pansy, stopped when he saw her. He stood up, wordless, grabbed Hermione's arm, and dragged her to an empty compartment at the back of the train. Despite Hermione's qualms being dragged by him somewhere, and her complaints of "Let go!", Malfoy continued dragging her.

They reached the inside of the compartment and he slid the door shut. "_What the hell_, Malfoy?"

"What are you _doing_, dressed like that?"

Hermione turned red again, but this time, not just out of embarrassment. "What do you _care_?"

"In case you've forgotten, I'm currently under some sort of magic that makes me attracted to you! What are you _doing_, looking like…looking better than you usually…" He fought with the little voice in his head forcing him to say something nice to her (something he would never do). "You know," he eyed her outfit. He sat down in defeat. "The damned love potion or whatever it is makes me feel weird."

"Oh," Hermione was speechless, irritation evaporating. "Er, the thing is, Lavender and Parvati sort of attacked me and forced me into this thing," she absently pulled at a lock of her hair.

The silence that followed was very awkward.

"So…" Malfoy was first to speak. "What happened in the Hospital Wing?"

"Well, I'm cured now, I guess. I don't know what Madam Pomfrey did, I think I lost consciousness after—" The train suddenly lurched forward, beginning its journey to Hogsmeade. The force made Hermione lose her balance and fall on the seated Draco Malfoy. She let out a surprised squeal.

"Granger!" Malfoy exclaimed, panicky. It was bad to be too close to the girl, he could barely control his actions. This would most likely lead to something he would obviously regret, like what happened earlier that day.

"Sorry! It was the train and the movement—" Hermione explained and tried to stand right back up again. Too late. Malfoy's Granger Love mode dominated his sanity faster than you can say 'resistance', and for the second time today, he kissed her. Not before pulling her back down on the seat, and making her sit on his lap.

When her lips met his, Hermione's thoughts and sense melted away. What he was and what she was, and how different they are, how they loathed each other, every doubt and every bad thought, it all just disappeared. Nothing seemed important. It was just the two of them. And Malfoy, who may or may not be influenced by the potion at the moment, felt the same. The feeling of being with her, kissing her, embracing her, touching her, it all felt…_right_.

The compartment door slid open. "Hermione? Where are you? We've got to be in the prefect's compartment—" Ron Weasley stopped talking and his eyes widened with horror, spotting the snogging pair.

x

xxx

x

**I have the ending of this story planned out (don't worry, still lots lots lots more before this ends) and I'm REALLY excited because this is my first fic...What do you think's gonna happen next, by the way? **Please review/teach me how to dougie/fave/ride ponies/alert/believe in magic/enjoy!****


	7. Chapter 7

At the corner of his eye, Draco Malfoy saw something red. _Weasley hair red_, he thought absentmindedly.

_WEASLEY HAIR RED!_

Malfoy broke off the kiss immediately. Secretly, both of them felt something like insufficiency. The kiss was not short, but they weren't done yet, weren't they. Both of them would never admit it, but they didn't exactly hate the kisses. Hermione saw Ron and jumped up, away from Malfoy.

Ron stood there near the compartment door, agape with shock, speechless, flummoxed. His brain couldn't process what was in front of him. When he finally got a grip on himself, his face went as red as his hair. He yelled, voice slightly cracking, "BLOODY HELL! WHAT THE F—"

Malfoy whipped out his wand. "_Stupefy!_" He dragged Ron into the compartment, and Hermione scrambled to the compartment door and slid it closed.

"Now, Really! You didn't have to stun him," she said, vexed. She rushed to help Malfoy make Ron's body sit on the seats.

"What else was I to do, Granger? Any longer and the whole train would have heard," Malfoy replied, annoyed. But what annoyed him more was the fact that Granger apparently cares about Weasley more than she cares about him…He struggled to make Ron sit upright, not bothering to be gentle.

Ron kept sliding off the seat. When they finally succeeded making him sit upright, he looked like he was just sleeping. "_Obliviate!_" Hermione poked her wand at Ron's forehead.

Hermione sat down on a seat adjacent to Ron's and exhaled deeply. "So, should we say that he suddenly collapsed or what?" She asked, trying to shake off that weird, giddy, feeling that comes when Draco Malfoy kisses her, acting like nothing happened. The first time it happened, she was mad, so she didn't really pay attention to the weird feeling. This was the second time, and nothing was here to distract her.

Malfoy sat down on the seat beside her, all relaxed and calm, which Hermione found infuriating. "I don't know," Malfoy shrugged.

"Well, we've got to fabricate _some_ sort of story, we've got to be in the prefect's compartment," Hermione said impatiently.

"I could just imperio him, you know, to make him act like nothing's wrong—"

"You are _not_ going to place an illegal, unforgivable curse on my best friend!" She scolded.

Malfoy was irritated once again. What does she see in the Weasel idiot? And Potty, the famous 'Boy-Who-Just-Won't-Die'. Those dolts don't deserve the company of the 'Brightest Witch of Our Age'.

Hermione hit him on the arm. "Are you even _listening_ to me?"

"_Ow!_" Malfoy stood up and sat on the other side of the compartment, next to Ron. "Granger, Remember that 'no slapping' rule? Can we add 'no hitting' too? Or why don't we generalize it: How about 'no hurting' me in any way?"

Ron's eyes fluttered open, and blinked a few times. "I don't think I did the right wand movement for the stunning," Malfoy shrugged.

Hermione quirked an eyebrow. It seemed odd; she always had the impression that he was an expert in all offense/defense spells and curses, being…well, Malfoy evil.

"Hermione?" Ron asked. "Did I fall asleep?"

"Er…yeah," Hermione lied, uncertain of what was the better thing to be done. Should she have just gone with it or feed him the first false fabricated story that comes into her mind?

"Right, well you could just wake me up when we get there," Ron told her and went back to sleep.

When he started snoring, Hermione laughed, shaking her head. "That was way too convenient!"

"He didn't even notice me!" Malfoy joined in, Hermione's giggles were contagious.

xxx

"Granger, what are you reading?" Malfoy asked, bored. His arms were crossed and he was looking out the window. They were in one of the two prefect's compartments and the pair of them has just finished patrolling the train for any misbehaving Hogwarts students. (It was currently Ernie Macmillan's and Hannah Abbott's turn to patrol. Pansy, Ron, Anthony and Padma, the other prefects, were in the other prefect's compartment on the other side of the train.)

Hermione looked up from her book. "It's muggle literature. It wouldn't interest you." Her eyes were back on the book once again.

He was disgusted, but bored enough to be desperate enough to say, "Try me. What's it about?"

Hermione sighed, and closed her book. "It's a love story," she said simply, hoping that that would make him stop asking. She was getting to the good part of Pride and Prejudice, she was about to read Mr. Darcy's letter.

Malfoy stopped asking. Hermione smiled to herself and continued reading.

"Granger?"

"_What_, Malfoy?" She snapped, exasperated. She didn't bother taking away her book.

"What are we going to do on Hogsmeade?" He asked, ignoring her tone. "You aren't planning on spending it with Potter and Weasley, are you?"

"Of course I will, what do think I'll do?" Hermione replied, getting snippy.

"_Well_, in case you've forgotten, _again_, that _I love you_, and that's _bad_. So what are we going to do?" He asked again.

Hermione sighed. She forgot. _Perfect timing, really. _She thought and rolled her eyes. _Malfoy drinking a love potion or something right before a Hogsmeade visit._

"Right, well I suppose we could go to the Flourish and Blotts there," she shrugged. "It branched out, you know. I've been meaning to go there too, so that's good. We can look at the books there about love spells and potions…"

xxx

"You're leaving me and Harry for a stupid bookstore?" Ron asked, outraged.

"Hermione, we're in Hogsmeade! We rarely go here and you want to spend the whole day in a _bookstore_?" Harry asked, shaking his head. "What about Honeydukes? Zonko's? The Three Broomsticks? And all those shops we always go to!"

"Flourish and Blotts is _not_ stupid!" Hermione said indignantly to Ron. "All the books there are really interesting, I'm meeting some of the Ravenclaws there. I expect we'll be there all day, they told me it had three floors…"

xxx

"How did you manage to get rid of Potter and Weasley?" Malfoy asked Hermione while opening the door of Flourish and Blotts for her.

"I told them I was going to a bookstore."

They were greeted with warmth from the snow outside and the smell of parchment and new book smell Hermione adored. She walked inside giddily and her eyes widened in awe. Three floors with cream colored walls lined with bookshelves up until the high ceiling, elegant dark brown wooden spiral staircases which led up to the upper floors, chandeliers giving off a warm yellowish light hanging from the ceiling, it was much fancier, no doubt, than the one in Diagon Alley.

"Hi, can I help you?" Chirped a perky, red-haired girl who worked for the shop. "Looking for a certain kind of book? I've memorized the whole place," she said proudly.

"Oh, um, where are all the books about love potions and enchantments and everything?" Hermione asked.

"Floor two, Bookcase seven, the lower half of the shelves," the redhead recited. "I'll lead you there. But I don't know why you need to get those," she winked at Hermione, and smiled at her left shoulder. Then she headed for the staircase.

Hermione was confused, and looked at her shoulder. Malfoy looked too, and there he saw his hand, which unconsciously rested there quite a while ago but both of them didn't notice.

"Damn." Malfoy took it away quickly. "Sorry," he muttered.

Hermione laughed, slightly intoxicated with the bookstore that she'd like to refer to as heaven. "Exactly why we're here," she rolled her eyes and took his hand, pulling him along, following the redhead. "You don't have to apologize, you know."

"But you would slap me. I think."

"No I won't!" Hermione smiled at the thought of Draco Malfoy being afraid of one of her trademark slaps.

"Well, you did," He contradicted her. "Earlier today. A lot of times." He added.

"That was because I didn't know anything! I thought you went crazy or playing some trick on me!"

"So now that you know it's okay for me to launch a surprise attack on your lips?" He smirked.

Hermione slapped him playfully on the arm. "No."

"What do you mean, then?"

Hermione shrugged and they continued following the redhead. They didn't talk. They reached the bookcase seven of floor two.

"Alrighty, here we are," She gestured to all the books. "If you want a book that's high up, you use our enchanted ladders." She wheeled one of the ladders leaning against a wall to Hermione and Malfoy. It looked like a normal ladder, except it was just about five feet tall. She climbed on it, and pointed to two buttons on the side of the ladder. An arrow pointing up, and an arrow pointing down. "Push the up arrow until you get the height of the ladder you want," She instructed, and pushed the up button. The ladder started getting taller and lifted her up, until she released the button, which made it stop elongating. "You press down to make it shorter," she called from high up the ladder. She pushed the down arrow until the ladder was back to its original height, and released the down arrow button. She got off the ladder and smiled at them. "That's all. And if you need any help on anything, push a help button," she pointed to a circular button with the word HELP on it.

"Thanks!" Hermione said as the redhead bid them good luck at finding the books they want and went back downstairs.

"The ladders are really nice, don't you think?" She looked at Malfoy. He was absentmindedly fiddling with the buttons which he found strange.

"It's quite muggle-y you know," She smiled, looking back at them. "The buttons. Usually muggles invent things with buttons to control them."

"Right…" Malfoy said, looking at her. He found it endearing how much she loved something as boring as books, and…ladders (what?). When she talks about them her eyes light up and her smile radiated happiness. And the way she laughed was like music to him. It wasn't shrieky or high or fake-sounding, it sounded sincere. Hermione was kind and beautiful and intelligent. Why hasn't anyone noticed how wonderful she is?

Malfoy strained hard not to pick her up and kiss her like it was the last day of their lives. To tell her how amazing she is, and how much he loved her.

"Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are, Granger?"

She was taken aback by the question. She turned pink looked down at her boots. "Er, well, I'm not pretty."

Malfoy was frustrated at her. She doesn't think so because no one ever tells her. He was frustrated that no one did. He was about to say something, but stopped and looked away. He really needed to get rid of these feelings. It seemed that the little voice implanted itself right in his thoughts and not in his mind anymore. Frightening.

"Tell you what, Malfoy." Hermione looked back up again, her face back to its normal color. "The rest of the day, don't hold back anything nice you want to say. Give in to the magic, I'll understand, I'll know it's not you, I know you hate me. Forget about your pride or dignity, saying nice things to Hermione Granger. And it looks like it hurts, when you fight it. I'll let you hold my hand too…if that's what it forces you to do. Why don't we pretend we're friends, just for today? And It'll make it easier to find a way to get rid of whatever it is you're under too." She half-smiled uncertainly at him.


	8. Chapter 8

Draco Malfoy wasn't half bad when he wasn't insulting your blood status, House, and friends. They exited Flourish in Blotts after buying five thick volumes of Love-related books Hermione thought could be of use.

It was much colder outside than it was before they went inside the shop, the snow just kept on falling. The shop was on the farther side of Hogsmeade, so when they entered earlier not one Hogwarts student was in the vicinity, but now some of them reached this part already, and it was very possible that someone might see them. It wasn't like they had anything to hide, everything would just be better off if nobody sees. Hermione pointed this problem out to Malfoy.

"When I go to Hogsmeade, me and Blaise and the others would always go to that clearing we discovered when we finished going through all the shops. We could go there," he suggested.

"Sure, where is it?" asked Hermione. She shivered involuntarily; it was getting colder and colder. She didn't expect the weather to change this fast, so now she had too few clothes on. If she wore pants, this wouldn't have been much of a problem. The stockings she was currently wearing were rendered useless against the cold. She cursed Parvati and Lavender in her mind.

"Do you want some hot butterbeer first? Or hot chocolate or something?"

"Let's buy butterbeers and we can bring them to that place you said."

"I'll buy the butterbeers," Malfoy glanced at the nearest café, which was unfortunately, Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. "I think there are lots of Hogwarts students in there."

Hermione agreed. "I'll browse that shop for a while, while you buy the butterbeers," she pointed to a quaint little shop that sold fancy quills. She knew neither Harry nor Ron would ever dare venture a shop that sold school-related items on a Hogsmeade visit. Avoiding the two would avoid any more questions that Hermione would be forced to lie to answer.

They separated, and Malfoy went inside Madam Puddifoot's. The atmosphere disgusted him. Almost every customer was playing tonsil hockey with whoever they came with. He could also see some familiar faces, Hogwarts people. Even Potter was there, with that Ravenclaw girl who used to be Cedric Diggory's. Potter probably just killed Diggory off because the girl…what was her name? Chang, yeah. She would never go for Potter with Diggory as competition. To his amusement, they were the only pair not snogging. And it seemed that the girl was upset. Malfoy chuckled.

The fat little lady that was Madame Puddifoot asked what he wanted to order, and commented about how alone he was, which was strange because he was very good-looking.

Malfoy rolled his eyes.

xxx

"You bought cake?" Hermione asked, delighted.

Draco Malfoy led her out of the main part of Hogsmeade (where all of the shops were), and went through some thick foliage and a foresty place. There was a clearing at the edge of some sort of cliff with a wonderful view, looking over the rest of Hogsmeade, which was the residential part. It was quiet and serene, snowy leaves on the ground and small trees surrounding them.

"You should see the view when it gets dark out, that's when the houses light up."

"It's very pretty," Hermione commented, looking around.

Malfoy sat down on the snowy ground, setting down butterbeers and the large box of strawberry shortcakes. He didn't know what made him buy it for them, he just did. "Should we start?" He looked at the books they carried.

"Right," Hermione sat down next to him. She flipped through one of the volumes, businesslike. "First we have to check if it's a love spell or enchantment that's been cast on you or you've drunk a love potion. It's easy to find out, because according to this book," she found helpful information and read it out loud. "_All known love spells, charms, and enchantments can be lifted by the general counter-spell, Finite Incantatem._"

"I've never used it before, but I know the theory." She took out her vine wood wand and cast the spell.

They stared at each other, and waited in awkward silence. Hermione's eyes roved around, expecting something to happen. "…Nothing?" She asked, slightly crestfallen.

"Nope," Malfoy shrugged.

"Well, I didn't really expect it would have been that easy," she looked back down at her book. "So now we know it's a love potion." She flipped through more pages and frowned. "What I know is that there are loads of different kinds of love potions, each with its different antidote or cure. You can even concoct a love potion of your own. Some of them even need to be made by the one who made the potion in the first place. Some wear off over time, depending on the dose of the love potion."

"This is _impossible_!" She moaned. She sighed again and lied down on the ground, covering her face with the book. She immediately regretted it and sat back up again, her back now wet with cold snow.

Malfoy chuckled and took his scarf off. He draped it around Hermione's neck.

She was startled, but reminded herself that this wasn't Malfoy; it was Malfoy under the influence of spiked pumpkin juice (if what he hypothesized earlier that day was correct). She smiled gratefully back at him for the warm scarf, and drunk some of her butterbeer.

"I can't do this, Granger," he burst out suddenly. "I can't not stop myself being uncivil with you, I can't just give in to the potion, it feels incredibly alien. It's like I'm being possessed."

"It's your fault you drunk a love potion." Hermione snapped. Just when she thought they were going to get along. The boy just had too much overflowing evil in his bloodstream. "I blame you for all this. Now we're all alone on a cliff reading books on a Hogsmeade day, an innocent muggle-born Gryffindor and an arrogant, prejudiced and mean Slytherin," she narrated.

"It's not my fault at all; you probably just made a love potion and accidentally gave it to the wrong person or something!"

"I'll have you know that I have _never_ made a love potion ever in my entire life!"

"Then why am I in love with _you_? You, of all people? Why couldn't it be, like, an apple or something?"

"Now we're just talking about apples?"

"If you've never made love potion before, then why am I in love with _you_?"

"Because you discovered how terrible a person you are and you seek me out for my kindness and end up falling hopelessly in love with me," Hermione copied the conceited tone he always used.

"I'll have _you_ know that I am a wonderful person."

Hermione snorted. "There are three kinds of love potions according to who the person falls in love with. One is where the drinker falls in love with the first person he sees, the second is he falls in love with the one who made the potion, and the third is when the drinker drinks a potion that contains something from a person, the person he falls in love with."

They both stopped arguing.

"Well, that kind of cleared it up a bit," He stated the obvious.

"I've come to another possible conclusion: someone is playing a prank on us," she announced.

"What?"

"Well, obviously we hate each other, and someone probably thought it funny if you were to suddenly fall in love with me."

"Or what if someone was making a love potion and you accidentally just got strands of hair in it?" He mocked, eyeing her bushy brown hair.

"For someone under a love potion, you sure are mean to the girl you're supposed to love."

"Obviously I'm fighting it. I have something called dignity. If you were to have it, Granger, you would, oh, I don't know, brush your hair? Hang out with people that aren't pathetic?" He said sharply.

"I do brush my hair! Why do you keep dragging my choice of friends in arguments?"

"_Choice_ of friends? If you had a _choice_ you wouldn't be hanging out with dimwits like—"

"_Rictumsempra!_" She cast the first curse that came into her mind after she noticed she was still holding her wand. This wasn't much of a curse though, it was the Tickling charm.

Malfoy started laughing uncontrollably. He was literally rolling on the floor, laughing.

Hermione smirked.

Malfoy took out his wand amidst gales of laughter and chortled out, "_Rictumsempraaaaahahahahahaha!_" A jet of sky blue light was produced by his wand, like Hermione's, and hit her.

She felt as if invisible hands were tickling every ticklish place on her body, and something inside her made her think of randomly strange but funny things. "How—hahahaha—did you manage to—" she shrieked with laughter. "Hex me while—" She never finished the sentence, for it was drowned out by her laughs. Her arm was wrapped around her waist to stop it from being tickled, but apparently the invisible hands won't let that stop them.

"C-counter curse!" Malfoy gasped.

"I'll—do it on you if you—" Hermione giggled, "Do it on me first!"

"You first!"

"N-no! You do it so I can do it—"

"I can't—do it if you won't—"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAOHMYGOD"

"AHAHAHAHAHAYOURFATHER'SUNDERPANTS"

"DOTHECOUNTERCURSEGRANGER"

"HAHASAYPLEASE!"

"_PLEASE!_"

Hermione managed to undo the curse on him. Meanwhile, Hermione was still laughing like an insane mental institution patient. Malfoy undid the curse on her and they both let themselves fall to the ground, panting like they just ran a marathon.

"I hate you," Hermione laughed, the jinx's effects ebbing away.

"I hate you, too," Malfoy grinned.

And for a few minutes they just looked at each other, resting on the ground, smiling.


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm incredibly sorry for being months overdue! Hmm? What's that? ****I need an excuse? Oh…er, finals? Holiday preparations? Oh, ****Happy Holidays, by the way! :)**

x

xxx

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"We're going to brew all the love potion antidotes it takes?" Hermione asked. "What do you think? It's quite a lot, like I said earlier, but most of them have similar ingredients, and we can just make tiny amounts of each..."

No reply.

"...Wait, are you _asleep_?" She elbowed him.

"Malfoy," she jerked her shoulder, where his head was resting on.

Wait, why was it there in the first place?

"Hey." She nudged him with her shoulder repeatedly.

"Malfoy! Wake _up_!"

"Ow!" Malfoy cried out, snapping awake. Hermione forgot what she did, maybe she elbowed him, nudged him too forcefully, or pushed him, but the next thing she knew, he was a few feet away and rubbing his arm.

"You were sleeping!" She said in slight outrage.

"I guess." He rubbed his eyes.

"_You guess?_" She shrieked. "You didn't even listening to me at all! I was talking to myself for the past _hour_!"

"I'm hungry," he said, like she wasn't seething. He reached for the cakes he bought with the butterbeer.

"Oh, you're _hungry_? Well—"

"Yes, I _am_! Do you need to repeat everything I say?" He asked sharply. "You _guess_? You're _hungry_?" He said in an unsuccessful high-pitched imitation of her voice.

"_Shut up_! I thought you wanted to get the stupid potion off! This isn't working because of your lack of cooperation!"

"_Lack of cooperation_? If cooperation means listening to your incessant—"

"Ha! Who's repeating words _now_?" retorted Hermione fiercely, unable to think of a better comeback.

"That was a terrible comeback," Malfoy remarked in distaste, shoving cake in his mouth after speaking.

"That a while ago was a terrible impersonation of me. Do you want us to get stuck like this forever? Or-no, do _you_ want yourself to get stuck like this forever? It doesn't really matter to _me_, I don't need a favor from you. Hmm, wouldn't that be hilarious, you, Draco Malfoy, so proud, prideful, pompous, pigheaded, Pureblood…and then soon potions like these intensify, you know," she smirked her best imitation of Malfoy's. "Soon you, potion you, will be itching to announce to the world, I love Mudblood Granger-"

Hermione rambled on, and Malfoy just kept on eating cake, occasionally twitching when she says something he particularly disliked.

She laughed. "Your parents will probably disown you! You'll live in shame, you'll be just like the Weasley's in your relatives' opinion-"

"Okay, that's enough," he shoved some blueberry cheesecake in her mouth. "You're becoming intolerable now, Granger."

Hermione was surprised, but chewed and swallowed it down. "You mean I've been tolerable before?" She asked inquisitively, the tastiness of the cheesecake somehow magically stopping her nagging. "I always thought you could never stand me."

Malfoy shrugged.

There was some kind of unconscious mutual agreement that went down and Malfoy continued spoon-feeding her the blueberry cheesecake.

"Isn't that pretty?" Hermione asked. The Hogsmeade houses started to light up, one by one, and multicolored smoke escaped from the chimneys. The sky was already dark, the sun had set…

Malfoy sniggered.

"What?"

"You've got whipped cream on your face."

Hermione wiped her face.

"You missed it," he smirked.

She wiped her face again.

"Still there."

She wiped her face again.

"You almost had it-"

"_You_ get it off!" She snapped, frustrated, facing him.

"Fine, stay still," he said, and wiped the whipped cream off her face.

Their eyes connected for a split second, and Hermione's heart raced, which left her wondering, as Malfoy offered his hand to help her up, as they walked wordlessly from the clearing back to the train, as they rode the train back…why.

x

xxx

x

"What a strange day," Hermione said to herself as she walked into her dormitory like a zombie.

She glanced at the mirror and saw her hair a perfect mess, with half-melted snow and fallen leaves and twigs all stuck in it. She also saw an unfamiliar object around her neck, a green and white striped scarf.

Wait.

She looked back at the mirror. A green and white striped scarf.

She hurriedly pulled it off her neck and looked at it as if it had cooties.

Should she return it? Well, of course she should! Now? Hmm, should she? It was a bit late…he would probably be in the Slytherin Common Room, so maybe tomorrow...

She lied down on her bed and dangled the scarf above her. She let go and it covered her face. She thought it smelled nice, like how his bed smelled.

She must be going crazy.

She swatted it away from her face and looked up at the ceiling, lost in thought. She wasn't really sure what was happening. Surely she can't start liking Malfoy?

Of course not, that's impossible.

She covered herself with her pillow. Can't she just suffocate herself? The day was so messed up. What's going to happen tomorrow? She tried to recall everything that happened today, everything she did. She distinctly remembered the kisses. Her face went red, and she threw the blanket over herself. Her roommates weren't in the dorm yet. Almost nobody was in the dorms, all of the Gryffindors (save Hermione) were in the Common Room, talking about the day.

Why did she agree? Why was she going to help him? Well, she didn't like the prospect of Malfoy loving her…right? That was all. But was this the most logical way to stop this madness? Maybe there was another way? Why did she agree to it so quickly? She hardly thought about it. Why?

She absentmindedly twirled the scarf around her forearm. The tag stuck out, _Draco Malfoy_, it said.

Draco Malfoy…

The weirdo, why would he write his name on his scarf?

She remembered a passage from the Hogwarts letter, that all student's clothes must carry name tags.

Oh…

She rolled around her bed and this continued, her brain maybe-malfunctioning, thinking random, confusing things, going back and forth, rethinking the things she thought about before, imagining situations, thinking about Malfoy, again, again, and again…

Does she like Malfoy now?

Does she?

NO!

No?

Why does she feel all self-conscious now whenever she's with him?

Usually whenever she thinks about him or sees him she gets irritated and that was all. Now it was different. Why was it different?

She got his scarf again and stared at it. Questions she couldn't answer echoed in her mind. She hated things she couldn't understand.

_What was she going to do?_

_What was happening?_

_Has she finished reading Chapter 42 of that library book she borrowed yesterday?_

DOES SHE LIKE HIM?

x

xxx

x

It was Sunday.

Hermione, once again, had a cold. And a fever…just like yesterday.

Didn't she go to the Hospital Wing already? She wasn't in the rain or anything yesterday.

Her head hurt. It didn't help that she didn't get any sleep last night. Stupid scarf.

She walked to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Morning," she greeted.

"Hermione, _where were you yesterday_?" asked Ginny…violently.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Um…at Hogsmeade?"

"Oh, don't give me that, Hermione Granger!" she snapped. "Harry and Ron told me you were with some Ravenclaws. Is that true?"

"Err…yes?"

"Exactly _which_ group of Ravenclaws?" Ginny cocked her head, looking at her expectantly.

Hermione hated lying. It was one of the few things she wasn't good at. "P…Padma Patil, and-"

"_I_ was with Padma the whole day."

_Damn_, Hermione thought. She was terrible at this. "I-I meant Parvati. And…and Lavender. I was-"

"They're not Ravenclaws. And since when do you hang out with them on Hogsmeade days, hmm?"

"Well...because-"

"You're lying, Hermione," Ginny said in a sing-song voice.

Hermione kept silent.

"Hermione, what's up?" Ginny asked. "Where were you _really_? And you look terrible, by the way, even worse than yesterday…"

"E-er, well, that's, um-"

Ginny's eyes lit up. "You were with a boy!"

"_What? _Nonono, no, no, no, I was not. Not with a boy," she shook her head vigorously.

"Hermione," Ginny teased. "Your face is red!"

"No, it's not!" she exclaimed frantically. "Stop that, Ginny!"

"You were on a date! That's why you were all dolled up yesterday afternoon! You lied to Harry and Ron so they wouldn't interrupt you! Right? Right?" Ginny squealed excitedly. "Oh, Hermione! You're blushing terribly!"

Hermione was extremely flustered. Ginny's smug face was inching closer, trying to get information out of her.

Hermione looked away from Ginny, panicky. She looked around, and met the gaze of none other than Draco Malfoy. She abruptly looked down. Had he been watching her?

Ginny tried to see where Hermione was looking at. The Slytherin Table?

"No way, Hermione!" Ginny squealed again. "A Slytherin?" she whispered. "Could this be forbidden love?" Then her eyes widened. "Malfoy! Could it be Draco Malfoy you like? Well, I suppose he is rather handsome, smart like you…oh, you'd be perfect for-"

x

Meanwhile, at the Slytherin table.

Malfoy was, in fact, watching her. He had been observing her as soon as she walked in the Great Hall. She looked as sick as he was. What _did_ they do yesterday? No rain or anything.

He watched her, fascinated, forcing himself not to smile as Granger reacts to her friend interrogating her, catching his eye for a split second, and looking down, embarrassed.

"Cute," he chuckled under his breath, now ready to concentrate on his breakfast.

Blaise heard this. "Do my ears deceive me, or did you just say the word, 'cute'?" He smirked at him.

"None of your business, Zabini."

"Well, well, well," he said. "What do we have here," he glanced at the direction where Malfoy was previously looking at. "Ah, Gryffindors…Care to explain?"

"I have nothing to explain."

"Hmm, could it be the Weasel's sister?"

Malfoy continued eating.

"No, it's Granger! You fancy Granger, don't you?"

Malfoy choked. "_No!_"

Blaise smirked again. "You did always talk about her. Complaining…did it blossom into love? Or did you always have a thing for her? Yes, she _is_ good-looking for a mudblood, isn't she?"

"Shove it, Zabini," Malfoy snapped. "I would never like a mudblood."

Blaise continued. "Come to think of it, where_ were_ you the whole afternoon yesterday? Perhaps a date? With none other than the captivating Miss Granger who's got you spellbound?"

x

xxx

x

PREFECT PATROL ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE WEEK

PAIRINGS AND AREAS

WEASLEY, PARKINSON - ASTRONOMY TOWER, EAST WING, WEST WING, NORTH WING

MALFOY, GRANGER - GROUNDS (EDGE OF FORBIDDEN FOREST TO LAKE, INCLUDING QUIDDITCH FIELD)

MACMILLAN, PATIL - SOUTH WING, WHOLE FIFTH FLOOR, SIXTH FLOOR, SEVENTH FLOOR

GOLDSTEIN, ABBOTT - GREAT HALL, SECOND FLOOR, THIRD FLOOR, FOURTH FLOOR

REMINDER:

PATROL ENDS AT 10.15PM

NOTICE TO THE HEAD BOY AND GIRL:

AT TWO IN THE AFTERNOON, PLEASE PROCEED TO PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL'S OFFICE

signed,

Minerva McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House

Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House

Filius Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House

Pomona Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff House

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster


	10. Filler Time!

"_Parkinson!_ Pansy Parkinson for the whole week, Harry!" Ron complained as they walked to breakfast.

Harry grimaced. "At least you didn't get Malfoy. And cheer up, it's not the whole week! It's Mondays to Fridays."

"I hate being a prefect."

Harry sniffled.

"…Harry? You alright, mate?"

"I…_I_ wanted to be a prefect, you know," Harry said earnestly. He sobbed, taking out a lace handkerchief from his sleeve. "But instead…_you_ got the position, and…and-"

They stopped walking, and Ron patted him awkwardly on the back in the hopes of comforting his dear best friend.

"And I'm always alone! You guys are always doing prefect things…Ginny's the only one there for me…" Harry hiccuped.

Then he started wheezing very loudly.

"And, dammit! I can't wipe my eyes because my glasses are in the way!"

"Er…why don't you remove your glasses first?" Ron offered helpfully.

"THERE YOU GO!" Harry wailed. "That's why you were picked over me…you were always the smarter one…"

People started staring.

"Harry…" said Ron uncomfortably. "People are staring…"

"You're always going on about what other people think! What about me? What about _my_ needs?" Harry bawled and ran to heaven knows where.

Ron stared at the direction he ran away to, dumbfounded.

And at that moment, Cho Chang and her posse were passing by.

"YOU!" The ginger pointed at her.

Cho was startled. "Er, sorry? Me?"

"Yes, you! This is all your fault! You somehow injected a huge amount of estrogen into Harry yesterday! Why would you do something like that?"

"S-s-sorry! But, I-I don't know what you're talking about-"

"LIES!" Ron yelled, and chased after Harry.

Cho and the other Ravenclaws stared at the direction Ron ran away to, dumbfounded.

And at that moment, Pansy Parkinson and her posse were passing by.

"Pansy! This is _your_ fault."

"What are you going on about, Chang?"

"I don't know!" Cho wailed, breaking down. "I don't understand my actions anymore! After Cedric re-re…reincarnated into a…" Tears glistened in her eyes, and she looked down. "Sparkling…vampire…"

"What does this all have to do with me?" asked Pansy, confused.

"_Cedric was an amazing finder!_" Cho howled. "Without him, my life is now meaningless! I want to blame the first unattractive person I see for his death!"

Pansy gaped. "I…I'm…_unattractive?_" she squeaked.

Marietta Edgecombe, now patting Cho on the back, nodded at Pansy. "You kind of are."

"N-no! That's…that's not true!" Pansy's eyes pooled with tears. "My mother told me I was the most beautiful witch in the world!"

Millicent Bulstrode patted Pansy on the back. "It's alright, Pansy. Let's go owl your therapist."

"My therapist told me I was pretty!" Pansy weeped.

And that was why none of them were at breakfast.

x

xxx

x

**I felt like writing something random, so here! A comedy filler :)**

**And I was reading ohana96's review and she said that Harry and Ron should get more screen time so, haha, I put them in this filler! YAY! FILLERS ARE FUN**

**AVPM references! :D Twilight references! The tiniest hint of Harry and Ron slash! ****I wrote this in about ten minutes, so it's just really short. This is my late Christmas gift for you all, and a sorry gift for not updating so long!**

**Oh, and I'm not sure how many chapters left, but the story's going to go on until Sunday, the day after the potion wears off. :) Don't worry, not that long!**

**Thank you for your reviews and thank you for reading!**


	11. Chapter 10

**This is a hilarious chapter, for me. This is my favorite so far (but it's quite short)…wait, maybe the next chapter would be? Hmm! Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy. :) I'm on holiday in Singapore right now, I wrote this during a long plane ride (we had to change planes too, hassle -.-) and I was sitting **_**next to my mom**_** (awkward, bro!) so when I wrote it, I used super small text font so she wouldn't get to read it, soo please excuse (if you find) wrong grammar-ness and misspellings. Please review if you have the time! Criticisms to improve my writing or any comments about the story, all welcome! Please be nice though :D**

x

"You, Mr. Zabini, are a genius," Ginny cackled.

Ginny and Blaise looked up at the noticeboard again.

"Go on," she nudged him. "Tell me how you did all this."

Blaise chuckled. "Trade secret."

"Oh, I tried to get it out of Hermione, by the way. During breakfast."

"Did she say anything? I teased Malfoy about Granger too. He said it was none of my business," he grinned.

"Hermione didn't say anything either," Ginny replied. "Denied everything. She totally blushed and everything, though."

"Malfoy was watching her, he even said 'cute'-"

"No way!"

"He did! It was hilarious."

"That's very uncharacteristic of him."

"It's very uncharacteristic of Granger to not say anything and blush too, right?"

"They are _perfect_ for each other!" Ginny squealed.

Blaise laughed at her enthusiasm. He remembered how he got dragged in to this matchmaking business in the first place. He felt like that Gryffindor Patil and Lavender Brown, matchmaking. They've been planning this for a while now, he and Ginny, they both noticed that their best friends had chemistry together, and Ginny suggested they match them up. It was actually fun with Ginny. Blaise wasn't as Weasley-hating as the other Slytherins, and he didn't care much wether someone was Muggle-born or not. The same went for Ginny, she didn't hate Slytherins as much as she did in her previous Hogwarts years. (Heck, she's dated two Slytherin boys already.)

xxx

"Hermione, where are you going?" Ron asked, noticing her hurrying up to somewhere.

"Oh, er," Hermione thought hard. Was she going to lie again? "The library," she said truthfully.

"Oh, good, can we come?" asked Harry. "We haven't started on that insanely long Potions essay for Snape tomorrow. Can you help?"

"No!" Hermione snapped, but nervously. If they were to come, they would see her and Malfoy.

Harry and Ron were surprised.

"S-sorry," Hermione apologized. "You can borrow my essay if you like," she rummaged around her bag, found the long parchment that was her assignment, and handed it over.

Her best friends brightened. Then Harry got suspicious.

"It's very unlike you to just give us your homework," he eyed her warily. "Are you _really_ Hermione?"

"Harry! Do you want her to take it back!" Ron hissed in alarm.

"Er, that's, it's, er, fine, really, I...just need some private…library…study time," she lied, faked a smile, and slinked away to the library.

xxx

"You're late, you git, where have you _been_?" demanded Hermione as Malfoy walked into the library.

"Don't get so riled up, Granger, you're scary." Malfoy replied, sitting with her. "If you must know, I went to the Hospital Wing. Wizard's fever."

Hermione sneezed.

"You should go too."

"I've already been in yesterday."

"Doesn't look like you're cured."

"Thank you for the concern," Hermione rolled her eyes. "But I'll manage. Should we start?"

xxx

"How many did you say it is, all in all?"

"…six hundred and thirty-four."

"…What?"

Hermione consulted the piece of parchment yet again. "Six hundred and thirty-four possible love potion antidotes."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow. "Right," he said slowly. "...And you say you think we can finish all this before the apocalypse?" He looked at the list Hermione made, incredulous.

It was Hermione's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"If we stick to this schedule I made," Hermione brandished another piece of parchment. It was long, color-coded, and…long. "We can finish it in two to three weeks, depending on how quickly we gather the ingredients. But gathering the ingredients won't be that much of a problem after we break into Snape's ingredient stash, and we're conveniently assigned to patrol near the Forbidden Forest this week…"

"Granger, promise me, after all this madness, you'll do a memory spell on both of us."

"Extra pay."

"Covetous ingenue," he half-smiled.

"I learned from the most covetous bloke in the world," she winked.

"Fine, what, another favor?"

"It was a joke, Malfoy," she laughed. Music.

Malfoy's heart did something similar to Neville's acrobatic moves in last year's fighting the Imperius Curse lesson with Impostor Moody.

x

xxx

x

_This goddamned scarf! _Hermione screamed in her head. It was bothering her yet again, Malfoy's green and white striped scarf she, again, forgot to return. It was almost 11 o' clock or so, and Hermione did not want a sleepless night, thank you very much, because of an article of clothing causing her to ceaselessly think about its owner. And it was Sunday! Which means tomorrow she had to wake up early for class.

Resolute, she looked up disillusionment charms in her Charms book. Borrowing Harry's Invisibility Cloak would have been simpler, but it would raise too many suspicious questions.

She studied and practiced the easiest disillusionment charm in the book, and after five minutes she got the hang of it. She cast it on herself, and, with scarf in hand, determinedly made her way to the Slytherin Common Room.

Of course she knew where it was, and of course she knew which dorm he was in, considering the fiasco yesterday morning.

She slammed the door open. There was only one person there.

Malfoy jumped and looked around.

Hermione flushed and covered her eyes. "OH MY GOD! PUT ON SOME CLOTHES!"

"GRANGER?"

"_Put on some clothes!_"

"Well I was about to," he replied unpleasantly, still yet he blushed. Thank God he already put on underwear. "Before you _barged in_. _Jesus_, Granger, don't you know how to _knock_?"

Hermione turned around, facing the door so she wouldn't see him. "I _do_. Don't you know how to _lock_ doors for privacy?"

"Well, Granger, this is a _boy's_ dorm," he explained slowly, as if he was talking to a small child, while dressing. "We have certain _rules_, and since you're not of the _male_ persuasion, you wouldn't know these rules, which are obviously different from yours. We knock, you lock. You shouldn't enter uncharted territory without knowing how things go. Okay, I'm dressed, why are the hell you here this late at night? _And_ where are you? How will I know you're not being a pervert?"

Hermione's form flickered, the disillusionment charm had gone. She supposed that it _was_ quite stupid, barging in.

"I came to return this," she tossed the scarf to him. "Thanks, by the way. I supposed that's all. I'll go now," she started walking out the door.

"Wait, Granger."

She turned. He was now wearing a dark gray shirt and white shorts. Hermione cursed her hormones as she noticed how fit he was.

"Two things: one, that's a nice nightgown-sorry, that was the love potion, and two, are you really going out there, in sight of lots of Slytherins, coming out from the boy's dorms, when your invisibility charm's gone?"

Hermione looked down at her perfectly visible form. She let out swear words that were so commendable you would have to cover a child's ears if they were in the same room.

And then they heard the footsteps.

More profanity from Hermione, and two words even worse from Malfoy.

"My roommates."

x

**Happy New Year everyone! :)**


	12. Chapter 11

Hermione threw Malfoy a panicked look.

Shit, _what would his roommates think when he saw her?_

She realized, just as the doorknob started turning, what an absurdly idiotic idea it was to return the scarf _this_ late at night. What was she thinking? Has she gone crazy now? Is being with someone you hate so much too often bad for your mental health?

Malfoy looked around the room frantically. There wasn't a place for Hermione to hide. He threw off part of his bedsheets and grabbed her arm. "Granger, hide!"

She obliged, no matter how against this she was. Malfoy threw some pillows over the lump that was Hermione under the blanket.

The door was creaking open. Slowly, like it was taunting him. _Hahaha, they'll all see and you're father will hear about this!_

He looked at the bed to check and noticed it was very strange-looking, a big lump of pillows arranged vertically on his bed. Too conspicuous. He had to make it look natural.

Without thinking everything through, he quickly climbed in. Into his bed. Where Hermione Granger was also in.

He chanted in his head. "If you don't do this we'll get caught. If you don't do this we'll get caught."

He clapped his hand over Hermione's mouth just as she was about to shriek in surprise.

His roommates, Blaise and Theodore Nott stepped inside the room. Malfoy pretended to be arranging pillows. They said something to Malfoy, but Hermione couldn't hear. All she could hear was the loud and fast beat of her heart and her thoughts in freak-out mode. She was under the sheets with Draco Malfoy, for heaven's fucking sake! Her face, she knew, was extremely red. Her thoughts raced…

Technically, this is how it went: she went to Draco Malfoy's (Slytherin person, possibly evil) dorm room (DORM ROOM!) late at night (AT NIGHT!). He told her to get in his bed (HIS BED!), and she did. (SHE DID.) And now she was on his bed for the second time in two days. But _this_ time, _he_ was in bed _with her._

_But it's not as bad as it sounds, right? _Hermione thought with desperation. _This was perfectly okay, perfectly excusable when one considered the circumstances…_

_Right?_

_NO! SHE WAS IN BED WITH DRACO MALFOY! THIS IS NO WAY IN HELL 'OKAY'!_

_In bed, STRICTLY SPEAKING._

_Strictly._

_Speaking._

Malfoy's conversation with his roommates ended and he covered his head with the sheets.

"_Why did you get in?_" Hermione whispered furiously.

They started talking in hushed tones. "My bed, my rules. And_ don't you think my roommates would wonder why the hell there was a big human sized lump under my sheets covered with pillows? _Unfortunately, my roommates aren't Crabbe and Goyle." And with that, Malfoy's face too started burning. Certainly they could have thought of another way to hide Granger, or something…he definitely got in without much hesitation. The love potion was probably overpowering him now, or…

"Well then, how do you propose I _get out of here_?"

"I'm _thinking_, alright? You should try to think of something too, since you're such a know-it-all," he said brusquely.

"You know, _they_ didn't knock," Hermione resented.

"Would you drop that for a moment? This is _your_ problem right now, you know!"

"Fine! What time do they usually fall asleep?"

"No luck there, Nott is the worst insomniac in the world."

"…are they going to go out of the room any time soon?"

"Doubt it."

Hermione sighed. Her brain was exhausted from the day and wanted to sleep really badly. No more good ideas came to her. She needed sleep, she hardly had any last night, because of the stupid scarf that kept her up and made her wonder…things. And now, _again_, she wouldn't get any sleep, not in this predicament she was in.

"Guess you'll have to sleep in," Malfoy declared reluctantly.

_"No!"_ she exclaimed, horrified.

"Your other choice is to wait for Zabini and Nott to fall asleep, which is the same if you sleep or not."

Hermione considered this for a moment.

Finally, she said, "…okay…But when Nott falls asleep I'll just go sneak out."

"Right, sure," Malfoy said, in a tone that implied he couldn't care less. "I'm going to sleep now."

"Er, so…Try not to accidentally touch me too much, I hate that when I'm asleep-" she rambled awkwardly.

"Mmm," he confirmed, uncaringly, sleepily. His back was facing her, so she didn't know if he was really sleepy or was just trying to get her to shut up.

She was lying, of course. She always liked having someone or something to hug or hug her when she sleeps. Usually a pillow at Hogwarts, and when she was young, her mother…She didn't have a pillow to hug here, only a pillow for her head, Malfoy took the rest of the pillows, the pillow-hogger. She usually couldn't sleep well without hugging anything.

Hermione bit her lip, unsure of how she was going to fall asleep in this situation. Sure, the bed was big enough for three quarters of Hagrid to fit (in short, it is _very_ big), the sheets were made out of a good quality material that was really really soft and comfortable…but how the hell was she going to fall asleep in the same bed as Malfoy?

x

Hermione was snoring when Malfoy woke up.

Okay, very very quiet snores, but still snores nonetheless.

Malfoy found it endearing. And when he realized he found it endearing, he found his founding it endearing disturbing. He _really_ needed to get rid of the love potion in him.

_What time is it?_ he thought groggily. _Past_ _3 am._

He looked over to Nott's bed. He was asleep.

He looked down at Hermione. And realized that his arm was around her, and her leg was around him.

He hurriedly backed away, and tried to regain his composure.

"Granger," he shook her gently. "They're asleep. You can go now."

"Granger."

"Granger?"

"Graaangerrr?"

Malfoy sighed. It was like she was petrified by a basilisk.

She stirred. And, "Shh," Hermione put a finger on her lips, not opening her eyes. "I'm sleeeeping. Quiet," she patted his hand that was trying to wake her, and snuggled closer to him.

"Right, I see it's impossible to wake you," he whispered, and half-smiled. He stroked her hair fondly, knowing she was asleep. And he lied back down, peaceful slumber.

x

**A/N: OHOHOH**


	13. Chapter 12

**Superfast update for my amazing readers! x Thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing and everything :)**

x

Blaise woke up. He rubbed his eyes and sat up on his bed. He looked around, eyes adjusting to the amount of sunlight in the room. Then he spotted something _very_ interesting.

"Would you look at this!" he finally said, after almost having a heart attack. "Hey, Nott!" he turned to Theo's bed. It was empty. "Shame, you're missing the greatest scandal of all Hogwarts," he shook his head, and looked back again at the two people on Malfoy's bed, trying to decided if he was hallucinating. "Well!" He laughed, finally convincing himself it was real. "I _did_ have an inkling it would come to something like this, but I didn't expect it _this_ early!"

He stood up and took a picture, for…future generations. He snickered all the way out of the room with the developed photo in hand, taking in the picture in motion, or rather, _who_ were in it and _what_ they were doing.

He would keep it for a while. He could make copies of it and sell it around Hogwarts or use it for blackmail, but he wouldn't. It would be something he could personally laugh at whenever he was bored.

Maybe he would give it to Ginny for her birthday. She'd like that.

xxx

Hermione finally came around. She was energized, rested, thanks to (finally) solid hours of sleep she needed really badly. It was the best sleep she had in a long time. She opened her eyes.

And realized her face was only centimeters apart from the face of Draco Malfoy.

And their bodies were really, _really_, close together.

She let out a quiet, high-pitched cry and backed away.

He cracked open one eye. "Finally awake, are we?" He sat up groggily.

Hermione noticed the empty beds in the room. Malfoy's roommates were nowhere in sight.

She sat up too, and dread creeped in. _Did they see her? _Her head was no longer under the blankets when she woke up. _She fell asleep! She didn't get to leave when his roommates woke up!_ She pulled her hair in frustration. _THEY MUST HAVE SEEN!_

_And now it's probably all over the school,_ she thought, terrified.

Malfoy threw off the sheets. Hermione saw her nightgown was now only covering above her underwear. It had probably went up because she usually moved around a lot when she sleeps.

She flinched violently and pulled it down, flushing.

Malfoy hurriedly looked away, his face redder than hers. "Er…sorry about that…"

Then something dawned on Hermione that made her forget yet another embarrassing moment Malfoy witnessed.

It was a Monday morning.

"_What time is it?_"

Malfoy checked his watch. "Half-past nine…oh, _shit_."

"Oh my God! We're_ late! Hours _late!" In a hurry scrambling off the bed, her foot got caught by some blankets tucked under the mattress and she fell to the floor, butt-first.

She felt like an idiot, and wobbled dizzily back up standing, not as fully awake as she thought she was.

Malfoy sniggered.

"Shut it," she snapped tersely.

xxx

"_And,_" Hermione huffed, her irritated voice still audible even with the sound of the water from the shower hitting the floor. "Weren't you already awake before I was? It didn't come to you _at all_ to wake me up?"

It was only a dark green shower curtain that separated them. Hermione was taking a shower as fast as she can, and Malfoy was brushing his teeth at the speed of light. "Watch that tone, Granger," Malfoy replied, vexed, spitting toothpaste out of his mouth. "You better be grateful I'm letting you use my bathroom. And I_ did _try to wake you up, when they were all asleep!"

"You did not!" She retorted, defiant.

"Yes, I _did_, you just _wouldn't_ wake up. Even if the whole castle was under siege I bet all the galleons in my Gringotts vault you _still_ wouldn't wake up!"

xxx

Malfoy threw a fresh towel above the shower curtain and into the shower, and Hermione caught it.

"Throw me my clothes?"

He tossed the uniform and underwear they accio'd a while ago above the curtain. Normally he would never, not on his life, handle female…articles (especially not _Hermione Granger's _female articles). Strange how being hellbent to get to class as fast as you can make you forget how much you hate people. That went for both of them.

The next thing they knew they were zipping across the halls to their different classes, with Hermione's hair was unnaturally better-looking, which was due to her using Malfoy's expensive hair products (which she accused of being too female-like for him to own, which caused another argument breaking out in the bathroom).

xxx

"Where've you been, Malfoy?" Blaise asked with a knowing smile as Malfoy entered the History of Magic classroom.

_Well, fuck, _he thought.

xxx

Hermione burst through the room and started apologizing profusely to Professor Flitwick. She came up with random lies on the spot to say why she was late. She was forgiven easily because this was her first time this year, being late for a class. She sat down on her seat nervously, and was amazed that no one appeared to know what really happened. The day progressed normally.

Did no one see her in the dorms? She wondered.


	14. Chapter 13

"You're _late_," Hermione said, piqued, and crossed her arms. "As always."

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Granger, get used to it," Malfoy replied, carefree.

"It's fine when we meet in libraries or whatever, but this is _prefect patrol_, and you should be responsible enough to know your duties!" She said viciously.

He raised an eyebrow. "What's got _you_ all riled up?"

She ignored this question and started to walk quickly out of the big doors of Hogwarts' entrance.

Malfoy had to jog to keep up. "No, _really_, Granger, why _are_ you mad?" He asked curiously.

"I guess we should start by the Quidditch field first, and go around," she said, swiftly changing direction.

He was slightly upset that he was being ignored. To be answered, he decided to try the method he was best at, which was provoking her. "What's annoying you, Granger? What's vexed you, Granger? What's made you angry, Granger? Irked you? Exasperated you? Granger, what's nettled you-"

"_Shut up_, Malfoy! It's none of your business!" She said, her voice rising in pitch, but still walking fast.

"Got on your nerves, Granger? Tried your patience, made your hackles rise-"

"Merlin, please, _stop talking_!" She covered her ears.

"Ruffled your feathers? Maddened you, pestered you, Granger? Rubbed you the wrong way-"

"Shut_ up_!" Hermione shouted, her anger rising word after word that came out of Malfoy's mouth. She finally snapped, and turned around sharply to the other direction, and ran.

She ran as fast as she could until she couldn't anymore, and sat on the ground, against a tree.

She cried. The tears that she had been bottling up ever since the beginning of the afternoon after that encounter were finally coming out. The tears she had been hiding all throughout the afternoon, throughout dinner.

Even though she would never have wanted to go back to that encounter, her mind flash backed to it and remembered every detail like it just happened a minute ago. And the words echoed, "W-ell, I don't know h-how to tell you this, 'Mione but…" The redhead told her awkwardly. He was hesitant, but finally he managed to blurt out the words he wanted to say.

"Er, we're d-dating."

"We're dating."

"We're dating."

Hermione covered her ears. "We're dating," the echo wouldn't go.

She remembered the smile she faked, and her voice filled with false cheer when she congratulated them.

She furiously wiped her incessant tears away, but they kept flowing. "I…I don't care. I _don't_ _care!" _She said out loud. "I DON'T CARE!"

Of course she didn't care, I mean, they were just friends, right? They always had been just good friends, and nothing more, after that spectacular troll fight in First Year. She didn't care! Why would she care? It was his life, he could do whatever he wanted! She didn't have a say in who he would snog in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room! She didn't care! It wasn't her who would decide whose lips his would kiss, she was just his friend! It wasn't her decision to choose what he was doing when everyone was in the Great Hall!

She didn't care!

Oh, but who was she kidding? She sobbed, and punched the tree trunk as hard as she could.

She did.

She cared.

Who knows when she started liking him as much more than just a friend? The feeling was mixed in with feelings of friendship, and that was why she didn't realize it in the first place. Was it since third year? When they had the big fight, when she realized how much she needed him? Or was it much before that?

_A know-it-all, huh?_ she thought bitterly. _If I was as smart as everybody said, why am I here? Why was I stupid enough not to realize it before?_

xxx

Malfoy stared, dumbstruck, at the direction where Hermione ran.

He scratched his head, confused. All he did was enumerate synonyms of 'why are you mad', right? Was that enough for her to get sick of it and run?

No, it wouldn't, he shook his head. Not Hermione Granger.

Something was wrong, he knew.

xxx

"Granger?" he found her under a tree by the lake. The moon was full and shining bright, along with the scintillating stars, and was reflected beautifully on the middle of the lake, like a spotlight. It was a beautiful night, and yet a beautiful girl was crying her heart out in misery. And the question was, why?

xxx

"So you're here," he said slowly, not following as well as one normally would, "because of _Weasley_?" He asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

"Shut up. I knew I shouldn't have told you," her voice was muffled because she had buried her face in her hands when she started telling him the time she walked in on Ron and Lavender snogging, and Ron telling her that they were dating.

"You have _terrible_ taste, Granger! _Weasley? _Not only is he _dense_, he's utterly-"

_Slap._

"Hey!" Malfoy winced. "The slap rule!"

"I know," she said, her face still hidden. How was she aware of the location of his cheek? "I quit."

"_What?"_ He was appalled.

"I quit," she repeated with finality. "I won't help you anymore. Give me a minute and let's get the patrol over with-"

"No! _Why?" _His heart sank.

Hermione looked at him expressionlessly."You ask _why?_ Why would _I_ help _you_? I don't have any idea why I agreed to help you in the first place, I don't need a stupid favor. It's _your_ problem!" She was on a roll. "And not only are you the one of the most _insensitive_ and _inconsiderate_ people I have _ever_ met-"

Impulsively, he kissed her.

It did not last as long as the others before, because this time Malfoy had something to say afterwards. "_That_, Granger," he said, looking at her directly in the eye. "Is why."

They stared at each other for a few moments, Hermione unable to speak, and Malfoy mesmerized by her tear-streaked face's expression.

"It's not just _my_ problem," Malfoy broke the silence and stood up. He walked to the other side of the tree and sat down, leaning against the tree trunk like what Hermione was doing, but on the opposite side. "It's yours too."

Hermione was silent.

"And if you're wondering why it's yours too, though I'm pretty sure you already figured that out, but I'll say this anyway," He counted the reasons off his fingers. "One, you have to be aware that I could jump you at any moment, at any place, be it a corridor on the way to a class or somewhere very public, I'm pretty sure if this potion gets out of hand I'll become that desperate-"

The sound of Hermione standing up made him stop speaking. She went to his side and to Malfoy's pleasure, she was slightly smiling.

"Shut up and I'll go help you." She offered her hand to help him up. "Let's go look for potion ingredients in the forest. I've got the list."

xxx

"You're late, Ginny," Blaise said and tossed her omnioculars. They had chosen the Astronomy Tower because it had a 360-degree view of the Hogwarts grounds, where Hermione and Malfoy were patrolling.

Ginny panted and beamed at him as she caught the magical telescope. It was just like the one they used watching the Quidditch World Cup last year. "Sorry, Blaise. I tried to come as fast as I could, but then Ron and Parkinson almost caught me. Seems they were assigned to the _Astronomy Tower_, couldn't you have fixed that? I had to hide inside those weird knight armor things too," she wrinkled her nose. "I took too long."

"Sorry, I only took care of Malfoy and Granger's patrol assignments," Blaise grinned. "Well, come on then," he motioned for her to come see what he was looking at with his omnioculars.

"Where are they?" Ginny asked, looking through the omnioculars.

"There, by the lake. Under the tree. Arguing?"

"Hmm," intoned Ginny suspiciously. "Weren't they supposed to be _patrolling_? What _are_ they doing…wait, oh my God!"

"What happened? I was replaying* something before!"

"They _kissed_, Blaise!" She said, almost exploding with giddiness. "There _is_ something going on between them!"

_"What! _Kissed?_ Seriously?"_

"Seriously!" She shoved her omnioculars in Blaise's hands. "Replay it!"

Blaise did and his jaw dropped. "Woah." He had thought there must have been a legit reason for them to spend a night in a bed together and not just because they had something going on, because sometimes crazy things _do_ happen, after all. Well, in the Wizarding World, at least. But here…they kissed! So that must mean either development or they're getting too close for their own good. But knowing the two, it would probably not be the latter.

Ginny grabbed her telescope back and they continued watching the pair below.

"Ooh, they're probably going to start patrolling now…"

"Yeah…wait, they're not. They're…going into the _forest_?"

"No way! What are they going to do _there_?"

"Well, we'll never know. The foliage is pretty thick. Can we still see?"

"No," Ginny said miserably. "No matter how much I try to zoom."

_"Damn it!"_

x

xx

x

_***well, if you didn't read book four or have forgotten, omnioculars are just like normal muggle telescopes but can pause and replay stuff you see in 'em. Just in case you didn't know. But I bet you do. :) **_

**x**

**A/N: Recently I've always been in the mood for fan fiction, I don't know why, but that's good because, yay, fast updates!**

**Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! **They'll be patrolling on Tuesday until Friday (and in the process uncover some things), and on Saturday they will finally succeed in removing the potion, and Sunday is the last day, that's when the fic's going to end. Worry not! I guarantee unexpected things and a happy happy ending you'll love (I hope, hah)!

**Please review if you'd like to offer me some writing advice or point out errors if I have committed any, or any comment about the fic. Thank you so much, it will be appreciated!**


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Now why do you know exactly where you'd find Snape's hidden ingredients?" Malfoy asked, suspicious.

Hermione laughed and shrugged, and continued walking to where they would brew the antidotes. Malfoy brought up the rear. He couldn't keep up with Hermione because he was the one carrying everything, from the ingredients they collected in the Forbidden Forest for hours and the ingredients they stole from Snape, to the cauldron and vials and scales and all the other potion-making tools.

"You've _been there_ before, haven't you?" He continued, slightly amazed. "Why would _you_ steal potion ingredients?"

She _had_ been there before, of course. She was the one who nicked the ingredients when they made Polyjuice Potion in Second Year. Hermione opened the door to an abandoned girl's bathroom for Malfoy because all she was carrying was the list, and he was carrying…well, everything.

"A _girl's_ bathroom?" he asked, reluctantly walking in.

"An _out of order_ girl's bathroom," she said and closed the door. She took in the scene. "Well, what do you know, they fixed the sinks up," she told herself.

"Did you say something?"

"No, let's start."

"Who's there?"

Malfoy jumped when he heard an unfamiliar voice.

"Right," Hermione smacked her forehead. "Hi, Myrtle."

"_You_ again," a sad looking girl emerged from a stall. She didn't look happy to see Hermione. "Where are your friends from before? No one comes and visits me here anymore. And I'm guessing you're not here to visit either."

"Er, well, yeah…We were _going_ to visit you, you know. When we promised. We, er, we got caught by prefects."

"Right," Moaning Myrtle replied glumly, not believing.

"Granger, who is this?" Malfoy asked as he dumped the heavy load he was carrying on the bathroom floor.

"Oh," Hermione forgot. "Right. Malfoy, this is Myrtle, the ghost who haunts this bathroom. Myrtle, this is Draco Malfoy."

Myrtle saw Malfoy for the first time and her ghostly face looked a bit more opaque, like she was blushing. "Oh, hello," she said happily. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Er, hi," he said, and then turned to Hermione. "We're making stuff here with a ghost?" Not bothering to be quiet.

"Well!" Myrtle huffed, offended, and stormed back into a bathroom stall noisily.

"Idiot," she snapped tartly at Malfoy. "She's…a bit _sensitive_ about being dead, and it's not her fault she has to haunt this bathroom, she died here," she whispered.

"How can you die in a _bathroom_?"

He, again, was not quiet in speaking, and they heard a loud sound, like someone blowing their nose really really loudly, from the stall where Myrtle went in.

"Idiot!" Hermione snapped again, more harshly this time. "She was killed by the _basilisk_," she spoke softly. "When the Chamber of Secrets was first opened."

"So she's a mudblood?"

"Merlin, you _git!_ " She punched his arm. "Don't be so _tactless_."

"Sorry," Malfoy called, so Myrtle would hear.

They heard a sniffle.

Hermione shook her head. "That won't do," she pushed him to the stall. "Go on, apologize again."

"I thought we were going to brew potion antidotes, what's with the _values education lessons_?"

xxx

Malfoy was convinced that if he spent too much time with Hermione he'd be transformed into a saint. And what with her muggle teachings and her lectures about some muggle customs he'd be good enough to replace their Muggle Studies professor.

He was back from rigorous potion brewing, and they managed to go with the schedule, actually finishing the listed 67 antidotes to the most common love potions. They'd made tiny amounts of each, and Malfoy drank them, and after that they would wait a few seconds to see if anything worked. Nothing did. The antidotes usually tasted like water, tasteless, but sometimes it was a particularly disgusting brew, and the worst one tasted like crushed celery mixed with soil and baby vomit.

He hated celery.

"You're back much later than usual from patrol," Theo observed as Malfoy walked into the dorm room.

And for some reason Blaise started laughing really hard. He tried to muffle his laughter with his pillow, but it didn't work much.

Malfoy cocked an eyebrow, but hoped he meant nothing by that and was just a sign that Blaise was going crazy. Malfoy then remembered the question Blaise asked him after being late to class this morning. _"Where've you been, Malfoy?"_ and smiling like he knew something…Malfoy chose not to answer the question that time, or was the question a rhetorical one?

"Nott, has Zabini been abusing drugs lately?" He asked as he fixed his things to get ready for bed.

x

xx

x

Draco Malfoy's Tuesday did not begin so well. He woke up earlier than normal and the first thing he said was "Granger." He tried to get back to sleep but he couldn't.

During breakfast, he watched Hermione try to eat breakfast while the Weasley bastard sat next to her, snogging Lavender Brown the whole time.

He caught her eye and mouthed "Alright?" with a pained expression on his face. Must be hard eating when two people next to you are playing the "let's see how far my tongue can get in your throat, and while we're at it, get our tongues all disgustingly tangled together" game.

Hermione smiled weakly and mouthed back, "I guess."

Then something weird sort of snapped in him. He felt an urge to storm up the Gryffindor table, kick Weasley's face so fucking hard that he's going to ricochet against the enchanted fucking ceiling, abduct Granger, carry her and stand on top of Dumbledore's table and announce to the whole of Hogwarts, "I FUCKING LOVE HERMIONE GRANGER!" And ask her to marry him. And then play the "let's see how far my tongue can get in your throat, and while we're at it, get our tongues all disgustingly tangled together" game with her.

But no, that's not gonna happen. He finished his breakfast and ran out of the Great Hall as fast as he could.

Throughout the day he was tormented by horribly inappropriate thoughts of her, desires that someone shouldn't _ever_ think of until at least eighteen years of age...

He desperately tried to shake off the strange feelings in his chest. He failed, and spent the rest of the day thinking about-no, the correct term would be _lusting for_, Hermione. It was all so..._disturbing_. It was hard to control himself. He walked fast in the halls, hoping he wouldn't cross paths. He even tried to listen to what the _teachers_ were talking about during class.

But he was going crazy! He wanted to see her. He _needed_ to see her.

Good thing the sensible side of him still, thank Merlin, bloody _existed_, no matter how buried that was under perverted thoughts.

Soon it was time for lunch, and he can't steer clear of Hermione this time.

He involuntarily scanned the Gryffindor table for her. To his surprise, she wasn't there.

It was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because he couldn't get his abduct Granger plan underway, and it was bad because…well, where was she? This simple question made him go mad and fill his mind with scenarios of Hermione dying, dead, in trouble, falling to her death, with her chastity violated, kidnapped…

"Draco?" asked the ever-annoying Pansy worriedly.

"Yeah, mate, you alright?" added Blaise.

Malfoy looked at them and looked where they where looking at, which were his hands. He looked down and realized that he had managed to scrape off the veneered surface of the Slytherin table with his nails. He swatted off the wood shavings, and doing this revealed that sizable chunks of the table was gone.

"I've got to go." He said and walked out of the Great Hall. He was going to look for Hermione.

The chicken leg on his plate beckoned him, and called, _wait, no! Don't go, eat me! I love you!_

He went back to the table and retrieved the chicken leg. _Yay!_

"I've got to go," he told his fellow Slytherins again, and walked out of the Great Hall with the chicken.

They watched him go.

"It's official, something's wrong with him," Theo said as soon as he was out of earshot.

Blaise nodded.

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Pansy piped up. "I thought he didn't like chicken."

Theo looked at Blaise, bewildered. "I thought he did!"

Blaise nodded. "He does. Ask your therapist, Pansy. Malfoy _does_ like chicken."

Crabbe heard one of his favorite words and joined the conversation. "_I_ like chicken."

"But pork is better," Goyle said.

"No one cares!" Pansy told them, tired of their talking about food preferences.

Crabbe and Goyle looked hurt. And then forgot why they were offended and continued eating.

"I like chicken," Crabbe smiled.

"But pork is better," Goyle said.

xxx

He ran around the castle, with no idea where to start looking. He was accompanied by the chicken leg, and he asked it for suggestions on where he would go first. The stubborn morsel refused to answer him. Come to think of it, it didn't speak to him at all during his journey running around. What did he do wrong? He thought crossly. Was the chicken leg jealous because he was looking for Hermione instead of enjoying its company?

The chicken leg, which he named Abigail, suddenly slipped from his grasp.

He frantically tried to save Abigail as she fell. He succeeded just as she (it was unknown when her gender was determined) was about to hit the floor. Abigail was pointing north. Malfoy looked north, and saw Neville Longbottom walking. Was Abigail correct? Was she leading him to the correct path? He had to find out.

He followed Neville.

Neville was humming an unbearable and stupid-sounding tune. Muggles would recognize this as the 'hit', "Friday" by Rebecca Black. The nerve of the pureblood to sing such degrading songs! Rebecca Black was actually a squib and disgrace of the Black family. Bellatrix Lestrange, before marriage, hooked up with a man she met a a retro disco club and the contraceptive broke. She was born with a mental illness that soon blossomed into a level of madness worthy of being a reason to lock her up in an asylum. She was disowned. But then some drunk people adopted her, and she managed to record an astoundingly literate song that touched millions of lives around the globe! Because before the song went viral, no one knew that Friday preceded Saturday. (Good one, muggles.)

_Where is Longbottom going? _Malfoy thought. _Abigail, are you sure?_

_Shi, a! Ji shi conglai meiyou cuo!_ Abigail replied. (Chicken* Chinese to English Translation: Of course! Chickens are never wrong!)

_Damn you, Abigail! I'm not Cho Chang!_

_A, hahaha! Dui bu qi. _(Legit Chinese to English Translation: Ah, hahaha! Sorry.)

xxx

Neville stopped in front of a portrait of a Fat Lady. He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a piece of paper.

"Password?" asked the Fat Lady.

"Er, lemon sherbet?" Neville read from the piece of paper. "Oh wait, that was last week's. Er…"

Malfoy waited behind Neville. Neville didn't notice.

"Mimbulus Mimbletonia-oh wait, that was a long time ago…er, Wizard Widdle-hey! Someone wrote this here...this isn't a password…"

"Winterberry holly?" Neville said finally.

The portrait swung open and revealed a hole, and he crawled in.

Malfoy sighed in relief and crawled in after him. _The Gryffindor Common Room!_ he realized. No one was there, except Neville, who was climbing up a staircase. There was another staircase opposite of it, which Malfoy assumed was the way to the girl's dorm, if the Gryffindor Common Room was designed similar to the Slytherin one. _Maybe Granger is up there…_

He climbed up the staircase, then suddenly the staircase was no more. It had transformed into a steep slide and Malfoy fell on his arse, and slid back down.

Abigail laughed mockingly and he watched, furious, as the slide turned back into stairs.

He opened a window in the Common Room, and some snow got inside. He took out his wand. "Accio Broom."

In a minute, his trusty Nimbus Two Thousand and One was now with him. He stood on the windowsill, got on the broom, one hand still carrying Abigail, and kicked off. He shut the window with one foot and flew higher. The windows on the floor above from where he got out of must belong to the girl's dorm rooms. He tried opening one window and he easily pushed it open. It looked like a girl's dorm room, and it smelled like one. No one was there. He got in and shut the window, and left his broom on the windowsill. He went out of the room, and saw that the doors were labeled with names of the room's inhabitants. One of the listed names on the door was Ginny Weasley.

_The girl Weasley's room,_ Malfoy committed it to memory. He had to remember that this was where he left the broom.

He checked each door until he found Hermione's.

xxx

Hermione sneezed.

She was still sick. Apparently Madam Pomfrey really didn't succeed in curing her that Saturday. The sickness was back that Sunday, and it didn't get better on Monday. Today, it was even worse.

She skipped lunch and went straight here, to her dorm, to rest.

The door opened.

"Parvati, is that you? Did you get me more tissue?" She asked. Her voice sounded strange and nasally due to her clogged nose.

"Granger?"

"MALFOY!" She spluttered. "W-what, how did you, girls' dorm-staircase-_what_ are you doing here?"

"Er," Malfoy said sheepishly and raised Abigail. "...I brought you chicken?"

x

xx

x

*Chicken Chinese - Abigail is not as fluent in Chinese as one might think. She is sometimes unsure of her phrasing, but her individual words are usually okay. Chicken Chinese is her form of Chinese, where usually words are not in the usual pattern Chinese sentences go. She would like to apologize for this.

x

**A/N: I don't know why a chicken leg found its way to this story…but oh well, it **_**is **_**in the Romance/Humor genre, so I hope that's okay. Fortunately (if you don't like Abigail), or unfortunately (if you liked having Abigail in the story), this will be her only appearance. Hermione eats her. Abigail was not in my original story plan, though…I add lots of things as I go along.**

**I hope you're enjoying the story so far and I apologize for my short chapters! If the story had the chapter lengths I would have preferred, the whole of this would be like, only ten to twelve chapters long! Please review if you have the time, tell me what parts you liked and disliked, or if a character was OC, or if my plot is wonky, or if I had a typo, etc etc. I like feedback a lot, I want to know what you guys think so I can write the next chapters better :))) Thank you!**


	16. Chapter 15

He was extremely high from seeing Hermione again, like he hadn't seen her in twenty seven years. He had stayed for a while in the room with her and, strangely, they got a conversation going and talked normally, despite the fact that he just burst in her room randomly, carrying chicken.

As he opened the door to Ginny's dorm to retrieve his broom, he perceived that his weird "Granger-lusting" (as he calls it) had drastically reduced when he saw her. He contemplated this for a moment, what was going on with the potion? Does it keep getting stronger and then suddenly controllable and suddenly stronger again and then just disappears after a time, or does his Granger-lusting go away only when he's with her, or does he just control it better when he sees her?

While he was walking to the window, he spotted something rectangular and light green that stood out on a bed's scarlet covers. As he got closer, he saw that it was an envelope.

_To Ginny_

_From Blaise_

He read it again to make sure that it did read 'Blaise'.

Yes, it was Blaise. And it was Blaise's handwriting.

Malfoy grabbed it and hurriedly ripped it open. Two things fell out, a piece of paper and a photograph. He caught the piece of paper, but the photo fell to the floor with the picture side facing down. He read the paper first. It was a letter.

x

_Ginny-_

_this is an advanced christmas gift. don't show it to anyone until…well, when our best friends won't murder us when they see this in our possession._

_this is a copy._

_i've made loads of copies to sell around the school, but I'm not sure when we can start selling them…_

_look at the photograph and be amazed! (ps this is real)_

_Blaise_

x

_Why would Zabini give the Weaselette a Christmas gift?_ Malfoy wondered. He picked up the photo that fell.

And he fainted.

Just kidding, he didn't, Malfoy's don't faint.

He almost did, though.

He stared at the picture in horror. It was a picture of him and Hermione yesterday morning. It was also a thousand times worse because pictures in the Wizarding World freaking _move_, it would have been less excruciating if it was like one of those unmoving Muggle pictures. They were snoring peacefully and…snuggling…

Merlin, how he wanted to die.

_But Zabini dies first_, thought Malfoy, crumpled the letter and photo and stuffed them in his pocket furiously. He picked up his broom and got on it, violently pushed open the window, and zipped out.

xxx

"The ten galleons?" prompted the Ravenclaw girl.

Blaise handed her the money and the girl gave him a bag in exchange. "Are you sure these work?" He asked.

The girl sighed. "_Yes_, don't doubt me, I'm not _stupid_, I know what I'm doing. Guaranteed, I modified those two omnioculars in the bag to see through thick foliage, improved its night vision, and revised the zoom mechanism to a magnification almost as good as a muggle microscope," she said, businesslike.

"Good," said Blaise happily, looking inside the bag.

"And the thing we talked about before?" She asked.

"Right," his face darkened. "I'm not using it to cheat or anything," he said. "But if you don't trust me that much, here you go."

The girl accepted a photo the reluctant Slytherin gave, and she inspected it. It was a picture of Blaise wearing unicorn footie pajamas.

She pocketed it. "That seems to be in order. Again, I won't leak this unless you break the contract and use these omnioculars for evil purposes. Pleasure doing business with you," she smiled and walked away.

"Yeah, thanks." Blaise called.

"Blackmail material," he muttered, shaking his head. "Crazy Ravenclaws."

Suddenly, Malfoy appeared at the end of the corridor. "ZABINI!" he yelled, a murderous glint in his gray eyes.

"Oh, good, it's you," Blaise said. "Listen, we've all decided that you have some sort of problem, and we can help. Pansy's owled her therapist. Remember that last time, when you were so upset you thought food was speaking to you-"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" He shoved the crumpled photo of him and Hermione in Blaise's face.

xxx

Malfoy was fuming for the rest of the day. He was ignoring Blaise.

Secretly, Malfoy knew it was good that it was only him who saw. He wasn't like the other Slytherins who would owl their parents immediately with a heading like "Mother I Saw Draco Malfoy Sleep with a Mudblood in His Room" and then after that happens, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy would hear of it immediately, haul him out of school and send him to hell.

_It was good that only he saw it, but DID HE HAVE TO TAKE A FUCKING PICTURE?_ Malfoy seethed.

xxx

In the afternoon, Hermione finally decided to go to the Hospital Wing, and saw Malfoy there too. He was lying on a bed, and Madam Pomfrey wasn't there.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Asked Hermione.

"Remember Sunday, why I was late to the library? Like I told you, I went here. I thought my Wizard's Fever was gone, but I suddenly felt like shit a while ago, turns out I still have it."

"Like the Wizard's Fever you got me catch when you got me locked out of the greenhouse? I still feel sick too…"

"Maybe it's incurable?"

"I hope not! But..."

"No visitors!" Madam Pomfrey scolded, back in the room.

"Oh, I'm not visiting, I think I'm still sick…"

Madam Pomfrey made her lie down on the bed next to where Malfoy's bed was, and did a check up.

She clucked in disapproval and eyed Hermione and Malfoy suspiciously, but didn't say anything.

Hermione wondered why.

Madam Pomfrey began, just like the first time Hermione was there because of Wizard's Fever, some strange aromatherapy.

Malfoy remembered the smells, it was exactly the same as the ones he had smelled when he carried Hermione to the Hospital Wing. Vanilla, grass, chocolate, tropical fruits, lemongrass…wait, oddly, something that smelled like his shampoo…Madam Pomfrey did the same to him a while ago, but the smells were different…

He got drowsy and fell asleep.

xxx

Hermione felt rejuvenated. She opened her eyes. All was white. Her vision cleared and she looked around. She recognized the Hospital Wing. Malfoy was on the bed next to hers, and was asleep. She spotted a book on the table separating their beds, and reached for it.

It was a medical book, so out of curiosity, she flipped to pages about Wizard's Fever. It seemed that it was quite rare and you get it when you're in close proximity to some weird plant when it's raining really hard. As she read, her eyes widened with realization.

_That was why Madam Pomfrey looked at us strangely!_ Hermione figured out. _Merlin, how embarrassing!_

She reread the passage, and a line stuck out to her. '_Wizard's Fever is only contagious when the saliva of a wizard with the disease comes into contact with another wizard. Having contracted Wizard's fever, one is discouraged to osculate with another.'_

Mortified, she shut the book and placed it back on the table. Yes, she and Malfoy _had_ done some…er…_osculating_. So…had it just been the bug she'd caught in the rain last Friday, passed back and forth, back and forth, from her and Malfoy?

She tried to recall the times they kissed. She was already sick on Friday. Malfoy kissed her that Saturday morning. She went to the Hospital Wing, but that time it was now Malfoy who had Wizard's Fever. In the afternoon, in the train, they also kissed, so Hermione caught Wizards Fever again. Well, this was complicated. The next day was Sunday, and both of them had Wizards Fever. Malfoy went to the Hospital Wing, and she didn't. On Monday, they kissed once again, and thus both of them had Wizard's Fever _today_.

She messed up her hair in embarrassment and frustration. What does Madam Pomfrey think of them now? Immoral snog-machines who exist for a sole purpose that was kissing each other's brains out?

She sighed. _Well, at least both of us are cured now, which means it's okay._

Then she realized what she just concluded in her mind. Okay? Okay to what, _kiss again and again_?

_No. Shut up, stupid Hermione_, she buried her face in her hands.

Things weren't okay the way they were now. Hermione contemplated her actions for the past few days. She had been acting sort of foolish ever since this whole catastrophe began that Saturday. Merlin! And it wasn't even her who was under the influence of magic! What was wrong with her? She hadn't been spending her time like normal, she had been spending it with the person she was convinced she hated the most in the whole school, she had been avoiding her friends, she hadn't been doing her bloody homework that was due the next next week, she hadn't…

She hadn't been feeling the same way as before.

She hit herself with a pillow. _Stupid!_

And now what? She's acting like a house elf, with all this self-punishment.

She lied back down on her bed. She's been misled by the stupid potion. Was she really that of a dull-witted nincompoop now?

She recollected the events last night. Malfoy had indirectly stated that he needed her. He pleaded, in a Malfoy way, for her to stay. He even made her feel better, somehow, when she felt like crap after the Ron and Lavender thing. And this morning, he asked her if she was alright.

Did that mean anything? Was she overanalyzing like usual?

Oh, yes, and then they kissed.

Well, not exactly, it was _he_ who kissed _her_, like he always did, always taking her by surprise-

_What the hell, Hermione! It's a potion, a love POTION! Nothing is real! Nothing he tells you is real! Nothing he does to you and for you is real!_

She kept reminding herself this, because her logical side knew this was true. But her bloody idiotic emotional side stubbornly does not believe any part of it.

She kept getting worked up and her arguments with herself tired her out. To add insult to injury, her scumbag brain kept giving her flashbacks of Ron and Lavender.

Hopefully this was all going to blow over soon. If not, she was going to bloody implode.

"Hermione!" Ron and Harry ran into the Hospital Wing.

She sat up. "Oh, hello," she greeted, slightly surprised, raising her eyebrows.

"What _happened?"_ asked Harry. "Why are you here? Are you sick? Did you get hurt?"

"We were looking all over for you!" said Ron, frantic.

_"Really?"_ Hermione asked Ron. "That's funny, I thought you forgot who I was, since you're always busy sucking Lavender's face off-"

"I need help with Cho!" Harry interrupted.

"And I need help with Transfiguration!" Ron cut in.

Hermione blinked. She had thought they were looking for her because they were worried. After all, they hadn't been speaking much lately. During classes Hermione was preoccupied listening and taking notes, during meals Harry spoke with Ginny, and Ron was Lavendering. They hadn't seen each other in the Common Rooms. Well, she's seen Ron but he was occupied, what with snogging Lavender and all. Harry she didn't see.

Ron blinked too, stupidly. "Wait, what did you say, Hermione?"

"Nothing," she said quickly.

Harry grinned, realizing something. "Are you-"

"No!" Hermione denied, knowing what word would come next. _Jealous._

"You are!"

"She's what?" asked Ron stupidly, not following.

"I'm nothing!" Hermione cried.

"-Jealous of Ron and Lavender?"

Ron choked stupidly. "WHAT?"

"I'm _not!"_

"Haven't you been avoiding us lately?"

"No, Harry, I have _not_-"

"Jealous?" Ron repeated stupidly, still stuck on that subject.

"WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP?" Malfoy yelled.

The three heads of the debating Gryffindors simultaneously turned.

"To thank all you insane idiots for waking me up, ten points from Gryffindor. I was having a good dream."

"Hermione, what were you doing here with _Malfoy?"_ Ron gaped stupidly*, missing the point entirely.

"Slytherins can _dream?"_ Harry gaped, matching Ron, and also missing the point entirely.

"You can't take points from other prefects, Malfoy."

"I'm not taking points from you."

"I'm a prefect too," interjected Ron stupidly, hurt.

"Alright, ten points from Potter then."

"Aren't you a member of the inquisitorial-" Harry began.

Hermione smacked her forehead.

"Very good, Potter. Fifteen points from Gryffindor."

Harry clutched his heart. "But that's too much!"

"Malfoy!" Hermione protested.

"It was a really good dream," Malfoy argued.

"What was it?" asked Ron stupidly yet curiously.

"Shagging Granger."

The three Gryffindors fainted simultaneously. That's how Gryffindors do it best, really. Simultaneously.

Malfoy cast a memory spell on all three of them and went back to sleep. Madam Pomfrey can clean up the two idiots on the floor.

xxx

That night, it was back to collecting ingredients in the forest, to replenish the ingredients they used up the night before, or to get new ingredients for the now-different kinds of antidotes.

"Malfoy, _where do you think you're going_?" Hermione asked, panicky, flailing the list of ingredients around. "Remember, this isn't called the _Forbidden_ Forest for nothing! Stay on the path! You'll get lost or get raped by rogue pixies or something!" And she was completely serious.

He thought he saw something red glimmer on the ground. Something familiar. He scanned the snowy ground and strayed farther away from the path.

"Malfoy!" Hermione whined. "Get back here."

"Wait," he found what he was looking for under a large tree with a trunk that was grayish brown, with moss everywhere. It was beautiful, and stood out from its location. He slowly removed it from the ground.

Hermione huffed and reluctantly deviated from the path, walking to where Malfoy was. "What's that? Don't go picking up just anything you see, it might be poisonous or-"

"Yeah, yeah," Malfoy put something in his pocket and went back to the path.

xxx

"Thanks for the Hospital Wing thing, by the way."

Malfoy shrugged. "They wouldn't shut up."

Hermione added the next ingredient to the cauldron. "After this, we need to wait ten minutes. Hand me those chopped twig things, would you?"

"You remember?" he asked as he reached for the chopped twig things in question.

Hermione sprinkled the chopped twig things in the cauldron. "Remember what?"

"I'm fairly sure I did a memory charm on all you three."

"I remembered just now, when I looked at you."

"Well, I've never been good at those kinds of spells."

"What are you good at?"

"Having dreams about shagging you."

Hermione laughed, but turned red. "You didn't really have that dream, did you?"

"That depends, what sort of 'dream' do you mean? A dream as in a series of thoughts and images occurring in a mind during sleep or a dream as in aspiration or ambition?"

She snorted. "Forget I asked."

x

xxx

x

**A/N: If you noticed that I kept using 'stupidly' to describe Ron's actions, I applaud you!**

**Meh, I think my writing's getting sloppy...**

**Anyway, I'm thinking of editing this whole story, fixing up the chaptering and everything, and add chapter titles…but if I would be doing that, this whole story would go from FIFTEEN chapters to SEVEN. Oh, I have a question. If I delete a chapter, would I delete the reviews with it? Another question: for example, I put up a five hundred chaptered story. Someone named Bob reviewed chapter five hundred. I edited the chaptering and now I only have four hundred and ninety-nine chapters. Then I updated the story with another chapter, so my chapters are back to five hundred. Will Bob be able to review my new chapter? Because you can't review a chapter more than once?**

**If anyone can answer me, please PM or you can just answer along with your review, if you are going to review.**

**Thank you and thank you for reading my story! :)**


	17. Chapter 16

Hermione yawned sleepily. It was getting very late and they haven't even finished three quarters through the list.

She flipped a page of the Potions book. "Well, this one's going to have to brew a bit longer," she yawned again and rubbed her eyes.

"How long?"

"Til it turns yellow," she leaned against the wall, next to Malfoy, slumped down, and sat on the floor.

He sat down too, and Hermione subconsciously rested her head on his shoulder. This immediately resulted in an automatic half-smile on Malfoy's face.

In no time at all, he heard the strangely calming, quiet snores he had become familiar with that Sunday night.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Myrtle asked, wandering about the bathroom, floating…impressively.

Malfoy wanted to shrug, but didn't want to bother Hermione.

"No," he replied instead, sounding a bit sulky.

Myrtle noticed this manner of replying and cocked her head. "You want her to be?"

"No," he replied again.

"Really?" She asked, obvious disbelief in her tone.

"No—I mean, yes, really no."

"Do you love her?" She asked.

"Why are you asking me all these things?"

"Ooh, you're avoiding this one," she remarked. "Because you know that the answer is _yes_."

Before he could deny it all, Moaning Myrtle walked through the wall, out her bathroom.

_Loony ghost. _He thought, annoyed. _What happened to all that moaning the day before?_

But those were just thoughts to distract him from what she had said.

_Did_ he love her?

He contemplated this, a bit disconcerted.

And in the end he just blamed it all on the love potion. That's what it was supposed to do, right? Make him queasy and nervous yet at the same time make him feel at ease and content whenever she was around, keep his mind occupied with thoughts all about her, what she was doing, what she would do if she were there with him, something he liked about her, some endearing quirks of hers, wish to be with her, put her needs and wants before his, care about her, let no one ever hurt her…

Well then, props to the love potion, it was doing its job. Maybe _too_ well.

xxx

Malfoy picked Hermione up and carried her, just like he did when he brought her to the Hospital Wing. She was light; not much of a burden.

Like Sunday night, she refused to wake. She fell into a deep sleep sitting on the bathroom floor (_Who falls into a deep sleep sitting on a bathroom floor?_ Malfoy thought), and he had continued making antidotes by himself. When he finished, it was almost dawn. Hermione makes them more efficiently. He couldn't be quick about it and not mess up the procedure at the same time, he just wasn't as good as her.

Now where was he to go? He didn't want her to wake up in his room and freak out like before, so he decided to bring her to her own.

He left the potion things in the bathroom like they did last night. He carried her out to the grounds and broke in the Quidditch supply cabinet in the Quidditch field and stole an old Cleansweep, because someone was bound to wake up to his Nimbus Two Thousand and One zooming around the castle if he tried to summon it like before. It was difficult to fly holding the broom handle with one hand only while supporting Hermione with his other arm without both of them falling to their deaths, but somehow he managed.

Because he was crazy. That was why.

The love potion had made him crazy.

He remembered the windows he flew in that afternoon, _three windows away from the Weaselette on the same side was Granger's…_

He wrenched open the windows and jumped in as quietly as possible. It would have been easier if the staircase allowed boys to go up to the girl's dorm. He knew the password to the Gryffindor Common Room, thanks to Neville Longbottom. Everything would have been much more simple then.

Her roommates were all asleep (of course they were, it was before dawn!) and he gently laid her down on the only empty bed of the five, which was undeniably Hermione's. Preliminary to his departure from the window, he stole one last look at her. It was a good thing he did, because he spotted an empty glass vase on her bedside table, which reminded him of something he had planned to do.

He made his way back to Hermione's bed, and pulled out something from his pocket. It was what he picked a few hours ago in the Forbidden Forest which, thankfully, Hermione did not get to see. He dropped it in the elegant glass vase and it slipped in with a _clink_.

Malfoy got the stolen Cleansweep (what was this, a Cleansweep _One_? It looked awfully old and worn), and rode it into the night. Or dawn. Whatever.

x

xxx

x

"Oooh, Hermione, that's so _pretty_," cried Parvati as she brushed her long, dark hair. "Where did you get it?"

"Forget pretty, it's _beautiful_!" Lavender exclaimed.

Hermione sat up in her bed slowly. "What are you both talking about?" She asked, puzzled.

"They were talking about _that_," Fay, whose bed was next to Hermione's, pointed at a bedside table.

Hermione gasped. "It's…that's…_beautiful_! That's a winter rose, right?" she asked the girls, wide-eyed, remembering a page from her fourth year Herbology book. "Aren't those extremely _rare_?"

Fay shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Barely passed Herbology."

Hermione pulled the flower out the vase and stared at the fragile-looking rose in her hand. It wasn't just a rose, the thornless stem and leaves were encrusted with what looked like minuscule green emeralds, the many translucent petals looked like they were made of soft sheets of rubies, and as they reached the edges the unusual petals faded into silver and diamonds. It was luminous in the early morning sunlight, and it looked more like a masterpiece of an expert jeweler than flora.

"Where'd'you get it?" asked Parvati again.

Hermione blinked. "Come to think of it…I don't—" she broke off in mid-sentence and beamed as she figured out whom the flower could have been from. "I don't know," she lied and put the rose carefully back in the vase, gazing fondly at it.

She wondered how she could thank Malfoy…

But wait, how did it get here in the first place?

Hermione couldn't recall him giving it to her last night…what even happened last night? She remembered they were making antidotes…oh, right. She cringed at the memory. She had fallen asleep! Then…how did she get back into the dorms? She thought hard.

She couldn't come up with a definite answer, but she was sure it was all thanks to Malfoy.

xxx

"Potions with the Slytherins first thing in the morning! Brilliant," Harry said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

_Potions with the Slytherins!_ Thought Hermione merrily. _Brilliant!_ She could somehow try to thank Malfoy for what he's done…

"So like I was saying," Ron chronicled as the trio sat at the back of the classroom. "I found Neville's piece of parchment yesterday morning, the parchment where he keeps the passwords because he always forgets them?"

"Yeah?" Harry prompted.

Ron sniggered. "I wrote up a bunch of fake passwords in all over it—"

A crumpled piece of parchment hit Hermione on the head. She looked around threateningly to see who had the impudence to throw it at her. Probably some Slytherin bastard.

She smoothed it out. It was a note written in green ink.

x

_Roses are red, violets are blue, hey, Granger,_

_Did you happen to see anything particularly sparkly this morning?_

_PS "roses are red" = hint_

x

Hermione rolled her eyes, but her lips twitched into a smile. She wrote back.

x

_Hi Malfoy. And yes, I did. And I got the hint before you said it was a hint._

_It's beautiful, I've never seen one in real life before, just pictures. Thank you._

x

She proceeded to add a tiny smiley face, and Ron noticed she wasn't listening to his story.

"What're you writing, Hermione?"

She hastily covered the note. "E-er, homework!" She lied.

"Really?" Harry leaned closer. "For what?"

"If it's the one for Transfiguration, I wanna see it—" Ron tried to pry Hermione's hands off the piece of parchment.

"Ron!" Hermione reprimanded. When this had no effect, she said the first thing that came into her mind, which happened to be, "Look, it's Lavender!"

Five seconds later, Ron was now sitting with Lavender.

"The git," Harry said, morose. "He chose _Lav-Lav_…" He said the nickname with scorn, "Over the freaking _Boy Who Lived! The Chosen One!_ I escaped the clutches of Voldemort _four_ times so far! Not to mention my supermegafoxyawesomehotness—"

_Here he goes again_, Hermione sighed. She tuned Harry's ranting out and finished up the note, then crumpled it and threw it back at Malfoy, who was sitting two rows in front.

"—I saved Ron's life _so_ many times before, and still he chooses some _girl_—"

The crumpled piece of paper hit Hermione's head again, but Harry was too caught up in letting out steam he didn't notice.

x

_Mother has one at home from my father. When it's plucked, it lasts forever, right? Because I've been seeing the rose in a vase in our living room for as long as I can remember._

x

_Well, if the love that created the rose lasts forever. Winter roses only grow in winter at magical sites where true love was shown. The rose will crumble if the love is gone, but 'true never love dies', so technically, yes, it does last forever. (Though there are instances when true love does 'die') It was used as a symbol of love since ancient wizarding times._

_What do you think caused this one to grow?_

x

Hermione tapped her chin with her quill. Did she ramble on too much again?

…_Oh well, it's always a good time for interesting trivia. _She threw it back at Malfoy. Her aim wasn't that good, but he would always catch it without his Slytherin seat mates noticing. Well, his seat mates were the thickheads Crabbe and Goyle; it wasn't really difficult.

Malfoy read the note. What caused the rose to grow?

True love?

He wrote the first thing he thought of.

_Us._

Before he crumpled it and threw it back, he read it again; to his horror, he realized that it sounded excessively sentimental and disgustingly mushy. He hurriedly crossed the revolting reply out and scribbled on it so Hermione would not be able to read it. Now his reply read _Mating Unicorns_ instead of _Us._

He threw it to Hermione right before Professor Snape walked in the Potions classroom.

Hermione opened it and the reply amused her. She looked at Malfoy and saw that he was watching her. She smiled awkwardly a bit and he smiled awkwardly a bit back, and she felt some kind of rush. _Strange._

She pocketed the parchment they had been writing on, because now that Snape was in the classroom, their conversation was over. Who would want fifty points taken away from their house?

xxx

And for the third time this week, the pair was back collecting ingredients in the Forbidden Forest.

Hermione kneeled on the snow-covered ground and started checking peculiar looking shrubs. "Malfoy, have you found any green landreeds yet?" She called.

Malfoy was also crawling about, checking shrubs about seven big trees away from Hermione. "Still looking," he replied.

Hermione stood up and wiped off some snow that stuck to her knees. She went farther to look for the elusive potion ingredient. Then, there was a rustle in a large bush a few feet away from her, and two glints of red caught the moonlight.

She quickly turned her head to where the sound was coming from.

A large white werewolf with menacing red eyes was snarling at her, frothing at the mouth, ready to pounce.

A distance away, Malfoy heard a bloodcurdling shriek.

_"HERMIONE!"_

x

xxx

x

**A/N: BAM! There you have it, people who are reading this right now! Here is where the "Jacob Black Attack", as I like to call it, happens. My school is having an educational tour so I'll be away from my laptop for about a week, so that means, not much progress on this story from January 29 to February 4! Just to let you all know. :)**

x

xxx

x

**Antidote-making deleted scene because it was sort of irrelevant (this happened somewhere between Chapter 15 and 16):**

Malfoy gulped the antidote down.

"Oh God, what the bloody hell was in there?" He gagged.

"It's best not to tell you," said Hermione mysteriously.

"I've seen what we put, why does this taste much worse than the others?"

"Larva," she said brightly, flipping a Potions book to the procedure of the next antidote they were going to do.

Malfoy turned a bit green. It matched his tie. "…Of?"

"Well, if I tell you, you might throw up and we'll have to make it again and you'll have to drink it again," she explained, but seemed to be enjoying his suffering.

He desperately drank water to wash the revolting flavor down, but it wasn't working. The taste remained, and if it didn't go away soon, he would _most certainly puke_.

Hermione tried not to start laughing out loud.

"Okay, since you asked," she smiled. "Remember those chopped twig things?"

"Yes?" He said slowly, starting to regret asking before. He had an inkling…he wouldn't like it, at all.

"Those weren't chopped twig things!" Hermione clapped like a child, smiling widely. "That was why they were wriggling!"

Malfoy ran to the sinks, and judging by the retching sounds, he was _most certainly puking_.

Hermione smiled in triumph and started remaking the potion.

xxx

"They're talking about larva," Ginny whispered. "And wriggling twigs." If Blaise donated improved omnioculars for their espionage, she donated Extendable Ears. It wasn't working as well as they hoped, though, because for some reason potion fumes blocked out most of the conversation. She had to remember to tell Fred and George about this defect.

Blaise raised his eyebrows. "_What_ are they doing in there?" Some sort of entomology research?

He and Ginny were right outside the door of the bathroom, and the two idiots inside were oblivious to that fact.

"Ooh, I hear Malfoy vomiting!"

They both avidly listened to some unpleasant retching.

"This is fun."

x

xxx

x

**Please review, how's the story so far for you?**


	18. Chapter 17

**A/N: Did anyone notice in the last chapter that Malfoy yelled "Hermione" instead of "Granger"? :D**

x

xxx

x

Hermione stood up and wiped off some snow that stuck to her knees. She went farther to look for the elusive potion ingredient. Then, there was a rustle in a large bush a few feet away from her, and two glints of red caught the moonlight.

She quickly turned her head to where the sound was coming from.

A large white werewolf with menacing red eyes was snarling at her, frothing at the mouth, ready to pounce.

A distance away, Malfoy heard a bloodcurdling shriek.

_"HERMIONE!"_

x

xxx

x

"B-Blaise," Ginny's grip on her omnioculars slackened, and it fell onto the gray brick floor of the Astronomy Tower with a clunk. She turned to Blaise, her eyes wide with fear.

His wand was already out, he had also seen what she had. He summoned two brooms and in seconds they were flying at breakneck speed to the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

x

Hermione's body slammed against the frosted gray trunk of a tree, knocking the wind out of her. The pain made her eyes water.

The shadow of the wolf loomed over her, and she was paralyzed with terror. Eyes, blood red, sinister, in great contrast with fur the color of snow.

It gnashed its sharp canine teeth and Hermione shut her eyes, waiting for the feeling of razor-sharp claws tearing through her flesh.

She could hear the wolf's panting, she could hear her short, quick breaths that would soon be her last, she could hear her heart hammering in her chest, she could hear…

…someone calling her name, the sound of a pair of feet on the snow, running, running...

A slash came. It was agony, excruciating, unbearable. She felt warm blood ooze to the cold snowy ground.

She prepared herself for more. She couldn't do anything to save herself. Hermione Granger would die, right there, deep in the Forbidden Forest on a cold, snowy, December night.

But no more came. Instead, she felt something _whoosh_ past her, and even with closed eyes she could tell that the shadow of the wolf had gone.

"D-Dra…co..." She managed to open her eyes a second before she fainted.

x

Ginny and Blaise jumped off their brooms in haste.

"Help Granger and I'll help Malfoy."

Dread and panic filled Ginny as she ran to her best friend, her pale, unmoving best friend lying on the ground, spattered with blood. Her sweater and skirt had long cuts and slashes, and from those came more blood trickling down.

Heart pounding, she felt Hermione's pulse.

Relieved as she was when she found out that Hermione was only unconscious, Ginny did not relax yet. These wounds could be fatal, or they could not. She was not like her mother, or Madam Pomfrey, who could patch things up in a second. All her knowledge of first aid summed up to...how to use band-aids.

She thought hard, focusing on Hermione instead of the loud crashes and falling trees meters away where the boys were fighting the animal.

_First aid spells, first aid spells..._

x

The wolf was not your usual, it did not run off after it had been maimed. And it had been maimed quite a few times.

Blaise and Malfoy had been attempting to stun it, and so far, to no avail.

x

Ginny was frustrated…to say the least. She was no good here, she does better in battle. The only thing she could do to be of help was to help the boys.

"Blaise!" she called.

Ginny took one last look at Hermione and ran to aid the boys.

x

"Ginny! What happened to Granger?"

"You help Hermione, I'll help here!"

"But—"

_"Go!"_

x

"Lost too much blood," Blaise muttered to himself the reason why Hermione passed out.

He kneeled down and set to work.

Blaise winced as he wrapped gauze (which he transfigured from leaves from winter resistant plants) around Hermione's wounds after doing some medical charms. He didn't like blood, and this was probably the most he'd seen in his life. (Was it unmanly that he didn't like blood?)

His mother was a famous healer; so like it or not, he knew a lot about medicinal magic, and he knew what he was doing.

Upon inspection, Blaise saw that Hermione had not been bitten by the werewolf (and so would not turn into one), her wounds appeared that they were by its claws (judging by the long parallel slashes on her sweater). And though sort of deep, he cast some charms on the cuts so it wouldn't be anything serious, and heal faster than normal. He was a bit worried by the long deep gash on her right thigh, though. It was much deeper and longer than the others. She might not be able to walk for a while. Well, a while meant just a few days, thanks to his medical spells, but still.

He continued working and observed the gash on her stomach. He had to raise up her sweater to take care of it.

_Malfoy wouldn't like this, _he laughed mentally.

Blaise, being a good person (yes, really), only raised up the sweater as far up as necessary.

A little later, he was finished. Well, almost. He needed some actual medicine, maybe like dittany. But so far Hermione was alright.

He surveyed his bandage work, and nodded triumphantly; his mother would be quite proud if she saw this.

x

Ginny's mother, on the other hand, would not have been quite proud if she had seen what her daughter was doing. Her father would probably feel the same way. Molly would be unhappy because Ginny was somewhere dangerous late at night, fighting a werewolf, and Arthur would be unhappy because Ginny was fighting a werewolf with a Malfoy.

The werewolf moved very fast, evading every single curse. It clawed at them, roared, leaped at them, and growled, and even managed to give them a few cuts.

Draco was getting very pissed off. And he was already mad in the beginning when it hurt Hermione. Why did it refuse to fucking _die_?

"Damn it," Ginny cursed. She was also getting quite pissed off. _"Reducto!" _she yelled. _"Stupefy! Stupefy!"_

xxx

Malfoy never would have guessed that he would start respecting a Weasley.

But who in there right mind _wouldn't_ have great respect for anyone who direct-hits a werewolf with a Bat Bogey Hex? Especially if that werewolf hurt someone you cared about?

x

"Zabini, is she alright?" he asked Blaise, concerned.

"She is, you don't have to worry."

Malfoy sighed in relief.

"You are _amazing_, Blaise."

Blaise waved his bloody hand at Ginny as if to say, _it was nothing, really_. "But I've a problem though, that on her thigh. Much deeper than the others."

"But you've done first aid spells?" asked Malfoy, brows furrowed.

"Yeah, and disinfecting spells."

"We can maybe get her to the Hospital Wing…" Ginny said.

"Madam Pomfrey might wonder why she's got so much cuts," Blaise pointed out.

"What spells have you done?" asked Malfoy.

Blaise enumerated them, and Ginny barely recognized any. Okay, _didn't_ recognize any.

"We could just wait. And see what happens to that one…if it really doesn't heal we could take her to the Hospital Wing. By then the other cuts would have healed…But what do we do _now_? Where do we bring her?" asked Malfoy, worried. They can't take her back to the dorms, all bandaged and a bit bloody.

"We could bring her in Hagrid's hut," suggested Ginny. "Since Professor Grubbly-Plank is teaching, that means Hagrid is out, right? So no one's in the hut. Also, it's close to the forest, which is convenient."

x

They found a big wrench-like tool on the garden by the hut, and Blaise used it to hit the doorknob.

The doorknob fell off.

Ginny shrugged and pushed the now-knobless door open. She controlled the floating gurney they conjured up to carry Hermione to zoom in the hut.

Malfoy turned the lights on with his wand. The hut would do. They slowly laid Hermione down on the bed.

They found Essence of Dittany in one of the cabinets, and Malfoy put some in Hermione's wounds.

Ginny huffed. Was she the only one who didn't know first aid here?

x

xxx

x

Grayish sunlight streamed through the frosted windows. Black dots danced before her eyes, and Hermione blinked numerous times to clear her sight. She didn't recognize the place immediately, but it was familiar. She looked around. Forgetting what happened the night before was getting a habit.

She tried to sit up on the lumpy bed she was on, but she felt a sharp pain somewhere on her right leg. Wincing, she looked down and saw her thigh heavily bandaged…actually, she was bandaged everywhere, not just on her thigh. She then saw a familiar head of white-blond hair snoring. Malfoy was sitting on a stool by the bed, and was slumped forward, his head resting in his arms on the mattress. She stroked his hair as she looked around.

Hermione was surprised to see Ginny Weasley and Blaise Zabini sitting on a couch together—Hagrid's couch, she finally recalled, yes, they were at Hagrid's hut (but why?)—sleeping peacefully. Ginny's head was on his shoulder. _When did they become friends?_

_Wait…what are we all doing here?_

Hermione couldn't really remember, so she hit Malfoy awake with a pillow.

Malfoy sat up fast. "What?" He asked, wildly looking around, blinking rapidly. When he saw Hermione, he calmed down. "Oh, Granger. How are you feeling?"

"What happened?" she asked.

"Your incredible pathetic-ness landed you here," he replied in a serious voice.

She hit him with the pillow again. It was lumpy and hard. Hagrid probably stuffed them with rocks.

_"Ow!"_

The noise made the couple on the couch stir. Ginny yawned, Blaise rubbed his eyes.

"Hermione! You're awake!" Ginny said happily, sleepily. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine…my leg hurts though. What are we all doing here, Ginny?"

"Some gay werewolf attacked you," said Blaise.

Hermione noticed that Malfoy, Ginny, and Blaise also had a few cuts and some bruises.

"Yeah, you were at the Forbidden Forest with Malfoy last night."

_Oh. Now I remember. But Ginny and Zabini weren't there…_

"All right, here's what happened," Malfoy explained. "We were looking for those green landreed things, and we split up because they were hard to find, and then you screamed. So I went to you and saw a massive wolf ripping your internal organs out—"

Hermione grimaced.

"—and so I took it on and then suddenly these two," he gestured at Blaise and Ginny. "Came running to help."

Hermione looked at the two on the couch. "How did you two know where we were?"

Ginny turned red and said nothing. Blaise started looking for something in his pockets.

"Yeah, how _did_ you two know?" Malfoy whipped his head around to look at them.

"You mean you didn't even wonder why all of a sudden they came to help when we were deep in the Forbidden Forest?"

Malfoy ignored this and questioned the nervous duo on the couch. "Well?"

Blaise took something out from his back pocket, a photograph. "No questions or I will leak this picture."

Hermione squinted. "And that is...?"

"Fuck, Zabini!"

"Ooh, what's that?" Ginny took it from Blaise.

"Malfoy took your copy," Blaise glared at Malfoy.

Draco turned red. "It's nobody's copy! Burn that picture, Zabini! BURN IT!"

Ginny shrieked gleefully as she looked at the picture.

_"Would anyone mind telling me what that is?"_ Hermione asked crossly.

"Is this _real_, Blaise?"

"Hell yes it is. I took it myself."

"Malfoy, what _is_ that picture?" Hermione asked again, getting impatient.

"It's a picture of us on Monday morning," Malfoy muttered through gritted teeth. He launched himself at the couch. "GIVE ME THAT, WEASLEY!"

"You already took my copy!"

"I don't fucking want a _copy_, I want to destroy it!"

"Monday morning?" Hermione wondered out loud as she watched the three fight over the picture. _What happened Monday morning?_

She recalled her overnight stay in the Slytherin dorms and flushed. _Oh. That. Fuck._

_"Accio photo!"_

"You had your wand all along, why didn't you use it on that werewolf last night?" Malfoy asked, straying from the topic.

"Oh shut up." Hermione caught the photo. "WHAT." She looked at Zabini, and back at the moving photo in horror. "WHAT."

"Please don't burn it," Blaise begged.

_"Incendio!"_

"Damn it."

Hermione threw the ashes on the floor.

"When _did_ you sleep with him, Hermione?" asked Ginny.

Hermione choked on her spit.

"We did not!" Malfoy exclaimed, upset.

x

xxx

x

**A/N: Sorry for the late update! It was hard writing this chapter, I had to rewrite it a few times because it seemed too dark and action-y, which was the total opposite of what I was going for in this story…and I rushed the rewrites a bit because I haven't been updating for a while. :)**

**Haha, oh look at those four idiots, fighting when they're got school. :D**

**Happy day after Valentine's Day! Right now I'm eating chocolate. Cadbury! :D Has anyone tried dissolving Toblerone in oatmeal? It's awesome. I've also just finished drinking some chocolate milk. Haha, living up to my Author name. I hate Ferrero Rocher. If it didn't have nuts I would adore it.**

**I hate nuts.**

**Just sharing. Thank you for reading, please review!**


	19. Chapter 18

**A/N: Sorry for not updating in a while! The story's gonna end soon though, few more chapters to go!**

x

xxx

x

Hermione peeled off the bandages by Blaise to reveal…nothing. Just skin; normal, unscathed skin. "Hey, why did you put so many bandages over nothing?" Well, except the wound on her right leg, she saw that one when she looked under the biggest bandaged area on her thigh. Jesus, It looked like raw bacon.

Malfoy stopped explaining to Blaise and Ginny about something, turned to Hermione, and inspected. "Oh, they're all gone."

"Mother is proud!" Blaise whispered to himself.

xxx

At the Zabini Manor, Blaise's mother was reading a rather large leather bound book about medicinal herbs. Suddenly, she felt a rush of affection for her only son. She closed the book and gazed fondly at a large family portrait hung on the beige walls of the room.

xxx

"And that's it," concluded Hermione.

"_Sure_," Ginny rolled her eyes. "A love potion. _Right._"

Blaise laughed. "Are you two serious?"

"We are!" "It's true!" They said at the same time, all defensive.

Malfoy scratched the back of his neck in frustration. They had been arguing for a while. First it had all been explanations by him and Hermione, then it was Blaise and Ginny not believing, next came more convincing, and then accusations of 'making up stories to hide their love', and then just plain fighting. A few more statements were exchanged, and after Hermione finally gave up and said "If you don't want to believe us, then don't!", Blaise noticed his wristwatch and was alarmed to find out that it was five minutes after eleven. And since it was Thursday, they had classes (and had missed about three).

There came profanity from all the four teenagers' mouths, and some scrambling.

Hermione was disturbed to note that she could not walk.

The only thing she was capable of was limping; that's not good enough when you're running late for a class.

"Merlin, Granger what's taking so long? We're going to leave you! McGonagall's been taking so much points from Slytherin lately we all think she's got PMS!"

"It's this _goddamned leg_!You go on ahea—"

"The hell didn't you say so before?" Malfoy said, irritated, and scooped her up easily, like he'd been doing this for a while (which he _had_ been, actually). Hermione was startled with this and let out an embarrassing, odd-sounding squeal. Malfoy ran quite fast to catch up with Blaise and Ginny, and Hermione had to 'sort-of-hug' him because she feared she might fall.

"We haven't even brushed our teeth yet!" moaned Hermione, more to herself. Her dentist parents would not be very happy if they were aware of this.

"Be quiet Granger, and your breath smells fine; it's not like you ate breakfast to have anything on your teeth."

She was surprised he had heard. In fact, she was surprised with a great many things he'd been doing for her. Carrying her like this, for one. What else? Oh, why was he asleep by where Hermione was, and not on the other spacious couch this morning? Did that mean he looked after her last night? And yesterday morning, when she found herself back in her dormitory. Had he carried her to there like he had when he carried her to the Hospital Wing and right now? Hermione noticed that he was taking great care not to put too much pressure on her right thigh, where that laceration from last night was. Or was she just overanalyzing? She sighed inwardly. She felt indebted to him now. Where was the cruel git she had been used to for the past four years?

She hoped she wasn't a burden. Hermione watched his face absentmindedly and noticed how pretty his eyes were. Blue, like a pool of water and gray like a stormy sky.

Blaise slammed the door of the Transfiguration classroom open. The four were quite a sight. They were panting (they ran across the grounds, climbed three tall moving staircases, two winding ones, and ran through so many halls and corridors nonstop), except Hermione (since she was carried), bloody, hair and clothes all messed up (also, Hermione's had accumulated some fallen frozen leaves that had melted in her hair overnight), and had numerous cuts (especially Hermione, whose clothes were practically slashed open).

Professor McGonagall looked up at the four sharply. "Now _where_ have you four been all morn—" she stopped abruptly after she had gotten a good look at them. She stood up, turned to her class and said briskly, "continue with your seat work," and walked out of the room to where the four were and closed the door.

Immediately, the class discontinued their seat work, and started whispering and gossiping.

"Er…"

"The fuck was that?"

"_Draco Malfoy_ was _carrying_ Hermione, _did you see_?"

"I'm worried, they all looked like they've been attacked—"

"_What_ have they been doing?"

"You know, I've heard Ginny and Hermione didn't return to their dorms last night!"

"Was that _Blaise_ and _Draco_?"

"With _Granger_ and _Weasley_?"

Steam was coming out of Ron's ears.

His girlfriend tried to soothe him. "It's okay, Won-Won—"

But Ron exploded. "What the _bloody hell_ is _Hermione_…HERMIONE! What's Hermione doing with that _bloody ferret_? Gone the whole morning and turns up with—"

"It's VOLDEMORT!" Harry yelled and stood up on the teacher's table in front of everyone. "Voldemort is back, I'm telling you all!"

"Harry! Please stop saying the name!"

"Get down, Potter, you attention whore!"

x

"Explain," Professor McGonagall told the four, her expression unreadable. They didn't know if she was concerned or angry.

Hermione self-consciously took her arms off around Draco's neck. No one spoke.

"_Well?_ Miss Granger? Miss Weasley? Mister Malfoy? Mister Zabini?"

"W-well, it's quite a…long story." Ginny bit her lip. She did not continue talking.

Silence hung in the air, and the students exchanged glances.

"Then _tell_ me the story; do not try my patience! _What happened?_ Where were you all?"

"The Forbidden Forest," Hermione answered.

The three students looked at her, alarmed.

"And _what_ were you doing there?" asked McGonagall, scandalized. "There is a reason it is called the _Forbidden_ Forest!"

"Last night, er," Hermione fought to come up with an excuse. She would not tell the truth. The truth was embarrassing and stupid. "Last night…"

"We were on prefect patrol last night," Malfoy continued.

"Yes, and we heard something in the Forest," Hermione lied. "A…a scream. We thought maybe it was a student who was out after curfew, so we checked."

"Because you see, Professor, there's always talk about dares and things going on in Common Rooms," Ginny added, getting the gist of what they were lying about. "Dares like, I dare you to go in the Forbidden Forest for how many galleons and stuff like that."

"Yeah, so we went in the forest." Malfoy played along.

"But not _deep_ into it," Hermione added quickly when she noticed that the Professor was going to say something. "And well, we only saw a, a yellow-breasted copybird." She remembered reading a chapter in _Hogwarts, A History_ about creatures in the Forbidden Forest. The copybird was a specie of avifauna that was common in the Forest, specifically, on the outer parts of it, and it had the ability to imitate any sound.

"So we went back to patrolling."

After that, no one spoke for a few seconds. McGonagall raised a thin eyebrow, suspicious.

They racked their brains, what else could they say? Where was this story going to lead to?

"Well, then I realized I dropped my ring, probably during patrol," Hermione went on. "The ring that used to be my grandmother's. It was important to me." Of course, it was not, because this ring does not exist. Then they rattled off, conjuring some convoluted events that didn't exist. They were getting a bit carried away with the web of lies they were weaving together. When they got to the part where somehow they all got into the forest, it was easier and faster to explain because it was the mostly the truth (with only sprinkles of little white lies). They talked about the werewolf and shock was on McGonagall's face, but she did not interrupt the four-way narrative.

"And then we realized we were late," Blaise ended the story.

Ginny and the others glanced at each other and nodded like it was all true, hoping that their strict teacher would buy it.

"Oh my," the Professor said simply, a hand on her heart. Moments passed. "Well, I suppose you all first have to go to the Hospital Wing…thank goodness you weren't bitten! Ten points for Gryffindor and twenty for Slytherin, for saving Miss Granger…I will have to ask Hagrid to check around the outer areas of the Forest when he gets back…

"Now, go. I trust Madam Pomfrey will tend to you four properly, so now I must get back to my class."

xxx

When Professor McGonagall was out of earshot, it was Ginny who giggled first.

Then Blaise and Malfoy started chortling, and Hermione, still being carried, joined in.

And they laughed all the way to the Hospital Wing, amused at how the Professor believed them, at how everything went better than expected. Not even a detention!

"We even got points!" Blaise and Ginny high-fived.

"But we lied," Hermione said, feeling guilty. "We got points because we lied!"

"The points were for saving you," Malfoy pointed out.

"Yes, and we did. That was one of the true parts," Ginny nodded.

"So everyone wins!" Blaise and Ginny high-fived again.

"But I swear, Hermione, that was brilliant, that ring lie," Ginny praised.

"Well, maybe I'm spending too much time with this idiot here," Hermione pulled at Malfoy's ear.

"Granger, I'm going to drop you."

She laughed. "Sorry! But really, he's been teaching me evil lessons." Hermione told Ginny and Blaise. "Like how to lie."

"In exchange, I guess Granger's been teaching me saint lessons," Malfoy shrugged.

"Saint lessons?" repeated Blaise.

"Yeah, like respecting house elves and not hurting ghosts' feelings," he winked down at Hermione without the other two seeing, remembering the nights when Hermione had forced him to apologize to Moaning Myrtle. An insightful ghost, that one. He recalled a conversation with Myrtle when Hermione had fallen asleep in the bathroom, a conversation that made him think.

_"Do you love her?"_

_"Why are you asking me all these things?"_

_"Ooh, you're avoiding this one. Because you know that the answer is yes."_

x

xxx

x

The Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey's healing skills did all four of them good. By lunch time all of them (except Hermione; her injuries were much worse) were allowed by the nurse to leave. Naturally, swarms of people immediately questioned them, rumors and news flew fast the time they were all in the Hospital Wing. They just said they saved Hermione from a werewolf during prefect patrol, and left out pretty much everything else in the story. The general public kept pressing them for more information, but the three stubborn teenagers said no more.

x

xxx

x

"Granger?"

"Yes, Malfoy? Oh, watch out for those white moss-like things. They're poisonous if you step on them. They might look like snow but they're not, it shouldn't snow in this part where it's really covered by the trees."

"Alright...Remember Tuesday night? When I went far from the path and you were whining at me to get back?"

"Oh, yeah. I suppose that's when you picked the winter rose? I love it, by the way, I never told you in person; thank you. Anyway, what about that?"

"Well, I think it's unfair last night when you went far from the path to look for those green land reeds, considering you kept telling me not to stray from the path the night before."

"Oh…well—"

"Don't do that again."

"I'm—"

"If Zabini and Girl Weasley didn't show, who knows what could have happened to you? From now on we'll stay together whenever we're here, okay?"

"…Okay."

"Now why are you smiling?"

"I-I'm not smiling!"

"You are!"

"You can't even see! It's dark."

"I'm a vampire. I have night vision—"

"Haha—ah! Don't do that, that tickles! Hey! Stop! Malfoy! Okay! Okay, you're a vampire!"

x

xxx

x

Late that Thursday night, Hermione was whistling back into her dorms happily, back from prefect patrol. She liked prefect patrol. Though it wasn't supposed to be called that, because it wasn't prefect patrol. Maybe for the first ten minutes and the last ten minutes it was, but in the middle? Potion-making or ingredient collection.

"Hi, Hermione!" Greeted her roommates, barely looking up from their game of Exploding Snap.

"Hi," Hermione replied and closed the door. Making her way to her bed, she observed, "Hmm, you four are up late."

"It's _Friday_ tomorrow," Fay pointed out.

"Oh," nodded Hermione. Yes, she remembered: Fifth Years had Friday mornings off every other week. She sat on her bed, slipped off her shoes, and peeled off her socks. "Hey, has anyone seen my bedroom slippers?"

"Nope."

"Didn't see it."

"Sorry, no..."

Hermione got off her bed and, leveling to the floor, looked under it. She sticked her hand under, feeling around for the familiar fluffy feel of her pink furry slippers. _Oh, there it is! _She pulled out a pair of slippers. But along with it, leaves all over. _What?_ Hermione felt around again, and found piles of plants and pouches of things under her bed. She pulled them out one by one. Mistletoe berries? Valerian Sprigs? Lavender? A small bag of beetle eyes? One-eighth of a unicorn horn?

_Most of these look suspiciously like ingredients for a love potion._ And _Hermione_ would _know_, of all people, since she had been associating with these kinds of ingredients and looking for them in the Forest for the past nights. Now the question was, why were all these things under her bed?

"Girls…" Hermione called curiously. "What are these all doing here?"

Her roommates looked up.

"Oh," Parvati spoke up sheepishly. "Sorry Hermione. We all have stuff under our beds and yours had none, so we sort of, er, stuffed them in."

"We were supposed to clear them out last weekend," Fay said apologetically. "We forgot."

Hermione was confused. "No, no, it's fine, but…what were you all doing with these?"

"The love potion!" Lavender snapped, almost exasperated. "For Julie!"

"Calm down, Lavender!" Fay said, eyebrows furrowed.

Lavender took a deep breath and glared at Hermione. She stood up. "I'm going to the bathroom."

The rest of the girls in the dorm room watched her go.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked them, rather discombobulated.

Parvati shrugged. "A lot of things. When she got back here after dinner she was really mad because Ron Weasley kept talking about you and wasn't paying her much attention. Lavender said he was also talking about secret rendezvous in train compartments or something like that."

"Oh," was all Hermione could say. She was pleased by this information, but not as much as she would be if she heard this, say, last week.

She recalled the train thing when Ron walked in on them. _Wait…didn't I do a memory charm on him?_ She assumed it was seeing Malfoy carry her during Transfiguration class. In doing memory spells, to be sure the victim never remembers what the spell caster wanted him to forget, the victim should be far away from anything that could trigger the remembrance of the memory.

"So anyway, what love potion?" Hermione asked. "Who's Julie?" Wizard's Fever affected her memory a bit.

"The first year girl! Remember, last Friday night? We were making a love potion? You slept as soon as you get back, but you still saw us."

It all came back to Hermione and something struck her.

_They made the potion on Friday night._

_Saturday morning was when Malfoy told me he loved me on the way back to the dorms after breakfast._

_Hermione, you are a complete moron._

"What kind of love potion did you make?" she asked them in a strangled whisper.

Her roommates did not notice her sudden change in behavior. "We don't know. Julie knows."

"Which room is she in?"

"The one next to Ginny Weas—"

Hermione was out the door.

xxx

"Is Julie here? Where's Julie?"

"She's with her _boyfriend,_" a bunch of first year girls replied in a sing-song voice, and then giggled.

"Where?"

The girls looked around nervously. "W-we're not sure we should tell you."

"Where _is_ she?"

"We can't tell! We promised not to tell where…"

A vein pulsed in Hermione's temple. She didn't have time for this. "I am a _prefect_. Tell me where or I will give all of you detentions every after school until Christmas break."

x

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x

**A/N: Did anyone remember chapters and chapters ago when her roommates stuffed the potion ingredients they nicked under Hermione's bed?**

**PS: Will you please review if you read this? Don't just fave or alert, tell me **_**why**_** you favorited it or put it on story alert. I know there are more than the average five people who review each chapter who read this, please tell me what you think! So I can improve it, make it so much better, and make you like it more. Thank you so much!**


	20. Chapter 19

**A/N: Quick update because I was just too excited! Remember to review!**

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Hemione caught the girl a few corridors near where the the portrait hole to the Common Room was. Julie was on the way back.

"Julie—" Hermione stopped when she remembered she didn't know her last name. "Er, Julie!"

The little girl jumped in surprise. "I-I-I was just going back to the Common Room! I, er, I…'msorrypleasepleasedon'ttakepoints—"

"Calm down, I'm not telling on you or taking points! Where's your boyfriend? I need to ask you two some questions—"

"I-I don't know what your talking about!" She squeaked in a high-pitched voice.

Hermione took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Julie. Okay, listen. Trust me when I say I won't tell. I know you brewed a love potion. You did that in my room with my roommates, remember? Parvati and the others?"

Julie sighed in defeat. "Yes," she replied.

"What kind of love potion was that?"

"A-amortentia."

Hermione's heart stopped. "_Amortentia?_

Don't you know how dangerous love potions are when they go wrong? And that's one of the strongest love potions! You could have brewed it properly, yes, but do you know what kind of terrible things can happen when the person you weren't planning on drinking it drinks it? Or when you give the wrong amount?"

"I-I'm sorry!" The little girl covered her face with her hands, upset. "But…but I think I did it properly enough…" she squeaked.

Hermione's eyebrows went up. "Sorry?"

"Well, we did the revised Amortentia, where we add some more ingredients to dilute it, or stir it differently compared to the original strong amortentia, and it's working the way the book says it—"

"What?" Hermione was confused.

"It's working the way the book says it will," Julie repeated quietly.

Hermione shook her head. No. This was her only lead. It can't just be coincidence! "How did you give it to him?"

"I put it in pumpkin juice and gave it to him."

"When?"

"Saturday morning."

_Yes! This could be it!_ "And did he drink it?"

"Yes."

_No! _Hermione got flustered. "Are you _sure_? Did you see him drink it?"

"Oh…well…no."

"And this boy is a Slytherin, right?"

"Yes."

Hermione collected her thoughts. "Okay. So, Julie, I'm not sure how to explain this, but that guy you like? He didn't drink it."

It was now Julie who was confused. "What?"

"Someone else drunk it. And—"

But Julie wasn't listening. Her eyes lit up. "So…you mean…you mean he likes me for me?"

"Huh? Oh, well, I guess—"

"Oh my gosh!" Julie exclaimed giddily and hugged Hermione. "Oh my gosh! Wait til I tell the girls!" And she ran to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

Hermione watched the girl go.

She crossed her arms and nodded to herself in triumph. Amortentia was a kind of love potion that wears off, it didn't have an antidote. She forgot to ask about the dosage but that didn't matter, no matter how big the amount you slip into someone's drink, it can all be removed by a simple memory charm. The potion theory was something like this: when someone drinks the potion, the magic (the magic that makes him think he loves you) of it goes to their minds (the more the amount, the stronger the magic will be, and the longer the magic will last). The potion without the magic is now harmless liquid, ready to be expelled from the body. The magic in the mind stays, and if you do a memory charm, not only will you make the person forget a few things from the past, you will also drive out the magic in their mind. And even if the person remembers, he will only remember the things that happened, but the magic making him love will not come back.

_Mystery solved!_ Hermione thought. _Finally!_ Finally, she could rest in peace. Malfoy would be gone and everything could go back to normal.

But why does she not feel as glad as she had expected?

She started walking back to the Common Room suddenly feeling sluggish and listless. With every step she felt like she was carrying something, and that something was getting heavier and heavier...

xxx

She couldn't sleep that night.

x

xxx

x

"Hermione, you coming with us to breakfast?"

"Nah, I think I'll sleep some more..."

Hermione heard the door close and she sat up. She looked around glumly, and spotted the vase on her bedside table. She picked the winter rose out, lied back down and sighed. She held the flower to her chest and closed her eyes. She didn't want to do anything. She didn't want to think of anything. She just wanted to go back to sleep and sleep forever with Draco Malfoy in her dreams. Because unlike reality, he won't have to leave.

x

xxx

x

_Merlin._

Hermione rolled over in her bed; she sighed as she twirled the rose above her. "Okay, Just this once," she told herself.

She took a deep breath. She looked around to assure herself that she was alone in the dorm room.

"I…" Hermione started, hesitated, mentally scolded herself, then continued. "I, Hermione Jean Granger, kind of like—"

_Seriously, Hermione? Kind of? Like?_

"Okay, okay!" she said hastily. "I…l-love…I love..."

_Spit it out!_

"M-Malfoy! I like, l-love Draco Malfoy!" she said the words as fast as possible.

Then she let out a little gasp, shut her eyes and covered her ears, expecting her bed to burst into flames or the Hogwarts castle being nuked.

Moments passed and nothing happened.

She stopped holding her breath and slowly sat up to collect her thoughts. When something happened and she didn't want to believe it or it was too ridiculous or insane to be true, she would try to say it out loud to help her accept it. This was how she convinced herself she was a witch.

_That wasn't hard now, was it?_

So she had stopped fooling herself and had accepted that she had this tiny crush on Malfoy, what now?

x

xxx

x

The day passed and Hermione still did not figure out what she wanted to do. Well, mostly.

It was time for prefect patrol.

The sky turned dark and It started drizzling. No snow, the temperature was slightly higher for it, unlike the days before.

Hermione hesitated. "M-Malfoy?"

He looked back. "Yeah, what?"

"Remember that favor, you know," she twiddled her fingers. "The one you would do for me if I helped you with this?"

"Finally thought of something?"

Hermione walked closer and faced him, making up her mind. "Well, yes…" she said slowly.

Malfoy raised his eyebrows, wondering why she looked so nervous. What was the favor? Was it something embarrassing? "What is it, then?"

"The favor…" Her shoes suddenly became interesting. She stared at them, at the little raindrops that fell on them. "Er, well, is…"

Malfoy waited. It was raining now.

"It's…" She bit her lip. _Now or never._ She exhaled slowly, mustering up the courage. "The favor is to forget that I did this." She said the words as quickly as possible.

"Did wha—"

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

Because now she knew. She knew that she loved him, and he did not. Not truly. She chose not to tell him yet, tell him that she knew how to get rid of the potion. She _would_ tell him, she would have to, soon. But for now, this was her moment. Just this once, she wanted to follow her heart, even if it was going against what was supposed to be done. And despite the fact that she knew this would make it harder for her to forget, she wanted to go on with it still. Because she knew it was going to be the last time.

Because when the potion is gone, so would his feelings be. So would these moments be.

Malfoy was surprised, for the first few seconds at least. After that, he did what came naturally. He kissed her back. Like he always did.

But something was different with this kiss; they both felt it. But they couldn't place why.

She ran her hands through his hair, and he embraced her, sharing warmth, pulling her closer until there was barely any space between them left. It was raining much harder now, and they were both soaking wet. But they did not care nor pull away to look for shelter.

The rain pouring down on them was cold, almost ice, but the tears streaming down Hermione's face were warm.

_If you love someone, set him free._


	21. Chapter 20

Down in the dungeons in a Slytherin dormitory, Blaise Zabini was alone, sitting cross-legged on his bed, reading a book, when suddenly there was a loud _pop!_

A little house elf appeared before him, bowing low. "Sir, Minny is very sorry to bother sir, but Minny is been doing laundry, sir, and is founding this in Mister Malfoy's pants pocket." The tiny creature raised a square thing in its long-fingered hand.

Blaise peered down curiously and closed his book. He reached out to get it and, upon realizing what it was, broke into a big grin. "That Malfoy! I thought he was going to destroy it!"

"When Minny found it, sir, it was very crumpled so Minny asked the others to help Minny, and so wes fixed it, sir."

Blaise looked at the elf. "Tell you what, Minny. _I'm_ going to give this back to Malfoy. He's going to be very happy you fixed it."

Minny looked up in delight and was nodding his head happily, ears flapping. "Sir is very kind to Minny! Now Minny must go back, sir, to the laundry, sir!"

The elf disappeared with a sound as loud as before.

Blaise looked at the photograph in his hand and started laughing. His copy may have been destroyed, but this copy, the one he was supposed to give Ginny (somehow Malfoy had gotten his hands on it before her) still existed in mint condition. He was planning to make loads of copies to sell around the school but never got to it. Now he could! He thought the image would be gone forever, one destroyed by Granger and one destroyed by Malfoy, but it turns out Malfoy kept it! Well, that or he forgot.

He chucked the photo into his drawer. He would give it to the idiot when he finally realizes that he doesn't want to destroy it.

xxx

"Zabini," Malfoy said in greeting as he walked in the room.

Blaise looked up. "Ma—_What the hell happened? _Did you take a swim with the Giant Squid under the ice or have you just never heard of an umbrella?…Or a water repelling charm."

Malfoy paid him no attention. He continued walking to his trunk in his sopping wet robes with a half smile on his face he couldn't get rid of. He opened his trunk and pulled out some pajamas. Blaise observed him as he padded around the room, getting things.

"How come nobody noticed you come in like that?" he asked as Malfoy was leaving for the bathroom.

He stopped at the doorway and shrugged. "It's Friday night," he replied and closed the door.

Blaise nodded to himself, _right_. This late at night during Fridays meant nobody below fifth year was allowed in the Common Room. It wasn't a Hogwarts rule, just something the Slytherins did. It was 'secret party night'; complete green and silver pandemonium. Sometimes it can get pretty simple and the sound would only be a lot of chatter, but tonight was extremely rowdy and the music was louder than a screaming portrait of a certain Azkaban ex-prisoner's mother. Hell, you can drag seventy Hufflepuffs into there and nobody would notice. Some of the first to fourth year students not allowed there actually prefer being in their dorms. And some old enough, like Blaise, prefer it too.

Malfoy came back after about fifteen minutes in green fleece pajamas and a towel on his shoulder. A memory of a few hours ago flashed in his head and his lips twitched into a smile.

"Alright, that's it, tell me what happened," Blaise threw his book at Malfoy. "Why are you so happy? It's a Granger thing, isn't it?"

When he heard 'Granger', he turned his back from his friend to keep him from seeing his grin.

x

xxx

x

Hermione was not so happy. She was also feeling sick again.

It was noon, Saturday. She had woken up hours before but did not leave her bed. She spent the morning thinking, trying to find…loopholes of some kind, to get rid of the potion and at the same time and remain…friends (was that what she wanted?)…with Malfoy, but she did not succeed. There were only two options possible, to tell him and get rid of it, or not to tell him and wait for the potion to wear off. Hermione didn't want to admit it, but she was leaning more on the latter, even if she knew it wasn't the right choice. But the potion might not wear off until a very long time, and their late night potion making (and prefect duty neglection) would soon take its toll on their grades. She sighed.

_I'll tell him._

She threw the covers off and got out of bed. The glimmer of the winter rose caught her eye. It mocked her, the way it caught the light and sparkled, its beauty, and what it symbolized. _True love?_ Bollocks. She didn't know what it was, but something clicked in her. She sat up, took the rose out of the vase, and hid the stupid thing in her drawer. It meant nothing to her, it _should_ mean nothing. It was given to her by Malfoy who wasn't really Malfoy. She didn't like him, she liked this delusional image of him she had that was tainted by fake words and actions under Amortentia.

The Draco Malfoy she liked didn't exist.

It was like falling in love with a character in a book, something Hermione was usually subject to because of her penchant for reading them. That heartbreaking moment when you close the book, get jarred back to reality and realize that he was fictional, a figment of an author's imagination...He wasn't real. He will _never_ be real, no matter how much you felt he was. He was a lie.

She was only fooling herself. It was time to stop. If she kept it up any longer it might get too hard to let go.

After determinedly dragging herself out of bed, she tied her hair up in a ponytail. She felt it was a sign of resolution. She proceeded to the Great Hall for lunch and sat at the Gryffindor table between Harry and Ginny.

"Hermione!"

"Hi, Harry."

"Where were you this morning?" asked Ginny.

Hermione shrugged. "Slept in."

Ginny observed her. Blaise had owled her last night telling her to, because he said something about Malfoy acting peculiar and he didn't wanted to tell Blaise what happened. Blaise and Ginny hadn't the foggiest idea what happened the night before, because their Astronomy Tower watch was a bust since it rained so hard and visibility was a big fat zero. The redhead noticed Hermione's eyes, which didn't have their usual fire in them. They were glassy…her smile was forced, not reaching her eyes like they used to.

"Hermione, are you feeling alright?"

The brunette raised her eyebrows at her. "What do you mean, Ginny? I'm fine."

She had been growing so used to lying lately. Hermione herself almost believed it.

There was short silence after that, and they ate. Everything was going normally, and her fellow Gryffindors were now engaged in conversation about the Quidditch match taking place next weekend. Yes, everything was going normally. Until Hermione made the mistake of glancing at the Slytherin table.

She saw Malfoy laughing with the other Slytherins at their table, and her newfound resolve crumbled away a thousand times faster than it had come. The sight of him made Hermione want to break down and cry. She wasn't 'fine' at all. She felt like shit, maybe the shittiest she had ever felt. To add up to her misery, she was probably coming down with Wizard's Fever again, the symptoms were appearing again.


End file.
